


The Atlantic Group

by Solangelo_Infection332



Series: WD Omega-verse [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alpha Glenn Rhee, Alpha Rick Grimes, Alpha Shane Walsh, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Badass Omega Daryl, Beta Lori, Bonding, Breeding, F/F, F/M, Knotting, Lori Grimes Bashing, M/M, Mates, Omega Daryl Dixon, Omega Verse, Shane Being an Asshole, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:58:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9175420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solangelo_Infection332/pseuds/Solangelo_Infection332
Summary: Rick Grimes woke up from a coma in the hospital to find that the world had ended. Upon finding his family, Rick discovers an unbearable sight. With a submissive Alpha on runs; his pup has been taken in by two abused Omegas, while his Mate and Pack-brother are knotting in the forest; a group of people that seem to believe the military is going to save them while they camp; and everything is run by his best friend, who rules the camp with an iron fist as the Prime-Alpha.Not to mention the badass, kind-of-hot, secret Omega hunter who seem ready to beat the whole camp up with his crossbow and dead squirrels.Set in Season One, told from Rick's and Daryl's POVs.





	1. Waking Up

The white and grey titles above him are the only things he can see. His vision is hazy and out of focus as the Alpha’s best friend, Shane, leans over him with what Rick can only guess is a bouquet of lilies in a blue and white antique vase in his arms. From what he can make out in the mess of colors, Shane wears his police T-shirt that had seen better days. His eyes are red and bagged, his face pale like he hadn't been sleeping. Shane looks at him and sighs before he addresses Rick in a distorted voice.

“I'm sorry man. I know I say the same crap every time I come in here." Shane fiddles with the flowers for a breath before chuckling. “I'm just goin' to set these on your side table, okay?"

Shane observes Rick for a moment before he steps off to the side, out of Rick's peripheral vision, to set the flowers down. After what feels like a few minutes of silence Rick's vision settles into focus and calls out to Shane.

"Shane?" He looks around, noticing he's completely alone.

"Shane, you in the john?" No answer. Scenting the air and noticing that only his own scent was present, with was odd because the nurse’s scent should be strong if they were checking on him, Rick looks around to see if he can make out his best friend. He sees the monitors he's hooked up to are off and the flowers that the other Alpha had placed next to his bed are dead. Odd.

Disoriented and confused, Rick tries to get out of the hospital bed. Tossing the blankets aside, Rick slowly sits up and grabs the IV pole next to him before trying to stand. Once he puts weight on his legs-- legs that are far weaker than he thinks they should be for being out for such a short amount of time-- they give out and Rick is on the floor, unable to breathe. He turns on his side and rips the IV from his arm before calling out in a hoarse voice, "Nurse. Help." 

When no one responds he calls out again, scenting the air. The whole building smells wrong; nothing like sterilize bandages and medicine but of death. Shakenly getting to his feet and taking a couple more tumbles before he can balance his weight, Rick makes his way to the bathroom connected to his room. He leans against the door with a heaving breath, and stares in shock at the mirror. He's thin-- thinner then he can ever remember being, and he's certain that it's unhealthy-- and his stubble is visibly longer then it had been before he got shot. Sticking his head under the faucet and turning it on, he drinks the stale smelling water greedily to clear the dust from his throat. Once Rick has had his fill he turns the water off and wipes his hands off on his hospital gown, being mindful of the bandages wrapped around his stomach that smell infected. He walks out into the hallway and pushes a gurney that blocked the door out of the way.

The hallway was a war-zone; papers litter the floor and the lights were flickering, doors are thrown open with some lights on and some off. Rick starts to make his way down the hallway, confused about the lack of people. He starts to walk down another hallway with a flickering light, stopping at the doors and almost dropping to his knees at the sight in front of him. Bracing himself against the door he stares at the abandoned hallway, the almost completely decayed body of a woman lying in the center. 

_ 'Oh my God, what happened here? Where is everyone? _ ’ Rick thinks as he walks away from the doors, his fear growing with each step he takes, staring in horror at the bullet ridden blood stained walls. Puddles of the red liquid coat the floor; foot prints slide in and out of view. Being careful not to cut his feet on the glass and ceiling parts on the ground, his breathing catches in his throat at the chained and bared door, the words  **'Don't Open, Dead Inside'** are spray painted on.

Rick turns to his left and pushes the doors open, bolting from the building. Opening the exit door Rick makes his way outside, using the wall as a support. He keeps his head down, trying to ignore the bodies wrapped in bloody sheets that cover the parking lot.

Rick makes it to his house with little memory as to how he got there. As he pulls up in front of a house he throws the bike he was riding down and stumbles his way into his house. Racing up the porch he throws the screen door open and walks in, calling for his wife and son. 

Walking into his and Lori's room he notices the clothes are thrown everywhere, a suitcase on the bed with shirts and pants left hanging out of it. The whole scene was one that reminded him of hasty packing that wasn't completed, like something more important had come up and the suitcase was forgotten. Going into the next room shows a similar scene, only instead of grown men's and women's clothes they're little boy shirts thrown everywhere. Making his way out of the rooms he drops to his knees and calls out for his family again, terrified now. 

After a few moments of crying softly, something most Alphas would never do, Rick gets to his feet and makes his way outside, sitting down on the stairs next to the street that lead to his porch. Looking out into the neighborhood Rick sees a man walking down the street in a black suit. The man sees him and slowly inches his way over, limping as if he had hurt himself. Rick raises his hand and waves at the man trying to catch his scent, unaware of the figure behind him, also slowly making his way to Rick. Once the figure is close enough to the back of Rick's head, they raise their arms back like they were playing baseball with a shovel. A twig snaps under their feet and Rick turns around only to be knocked down by the shovel to his face.

……………………………………………………..

Rick must have blacked out at that point from shock and exhaustion because the next thing he knows; he's waking up on a comfortable bed with his hands tied above his head. Not knowing where he is or how he had gotten inside a house, Rick looks around at his surroundings. An Omega boy is standing off to one side of the bed, a baseball bat in hand as he shifts from foot to foot, biting his lip in anticipation. A glove snapping drags Rick's attention to the other side of the bed, where another Alpha is standing. He looks at Rick for a moment before he goes back to cleaning his hands in a bowl on a table. 

"Got that bandage changed now," He says, "it was pretty rank. What was the wound?"

"Gunshot." Rick says. 

"Gunshot? What else? Anythin'?" He wipes his hands on a towel before he turns to Rick, wiping his brow as well. 

"Gunshot ain't enough?" Rick asks sarcastically.

The man gets closer to Rick, almost over top of him to assert his dominance, and snaps back, "Look, I ask, and you answer. That's common courtesy, right?" He leans down until he's face to face with Rick before saying emphatically, "Did you get bit?"

Rick licks his lips in confusion, narrowing his eyes at the man, "Bit?"

"Bit," the man repeats, "chewed, maybe scratched-- anythin' like that?" 

"No, I got shot." Rick says looking the man in the eyes, "just shot as far as I know." The man goes to touch Rick, but Rick evades him, remembering what he had done to that man; shot him in the head, point blank, without a second thought.

"Hey. Just let me." He places the back of his hand on Rick's forehead before turning to his son, "Feels cool enough. Fever would've killed you by now."

"I don't think I have one." Rick says, shaking his head. 

"Be hard to miss." The man says. The man reaches up and cuts the bindings on Rick's wrists with a pocket knife. He gets off the bed and cuts the bindings on Rick's ankles before closing the knife with a click and putting it back in his pocket.

"Come on out when you're able." The man says as he makes his way over to the door, nudging his son. Rick grabs a thin blanket and makes his way out of the room, heading in the direction of a scrapping ladle and soft murmurs. The man and his son are at a small table, dishing up food onto plates. Rick notices a collection of can goods and toilet paper rolls in corners, two twin mattresses lay side by side, obviously used. It seems like the Alpha and his son were staying within three rooms of the whole house. The windows and door are boarded up with heavy blankets covering them, not letting what little light the candles and oil lamps give off be seen from the outside. The house, now that he's looking around, is familiar. As he makes his way to the windows he feels the other Alpha's eyes on him. He goes to look outside but the man stops him.

"Don't do that," the man calls softly, "They'll see the light. There's more out there than usual. I never should've fired that gun today." The man makes his way to the table and pulls a metal can off a small burner with some rags, "Sound draws them; now they're all over the street. Stupid-- using a gun." He blows the hand-held burner out and places it on a side table. "But it all happened so fast... I didn't think." The man sits at the table. 

"You shot that man today." Rick accused him.

"Man?" The man questions. 

"It weren't no man." the boy pipes in. 

"What the hell was that out of your mouth just now?" the man glares at his son.

"It wasn't a man." the boy corrects himself. 

"You shot him in the street out front-- a man." Rick says a little more forcefully.

The other man scoffs and says, "Friend, you need glasses. It was a Walker. Come on, sit down before you fall down." The man places some beans on his son's and his plates before dishing up a plate for Rick, "Here." Rick sits at the table across from the boy.

They say their blessings and start to eat. The man looks at Rick as if something had clicked with him just now that he hadn't thought about before. 

"Hey, mister, you even know what's going on?" Rick swallows his food before he speaks. 

"I woke up today in the hospital.... came home and that's all I know."  Rick takes another bite of beans. The man and his son share a glance with each other before the man clears his throat.

"But you know about the dead people, right?" he asks. 

"Yeah I saw a lot of that," Rick says, slightly nauseous, "out on the loading dock, piled in trucks."

"No, not the ones they put down. The ones they didn't-- the Walkers, like the one I shot today. Cause he'd have ripped into you, tried to eat you." At Rick's confused yet horrified expression the man continues, "Well, I guess if this is the first you're hearin' it, I know how it must sound."

"They're out there now? In the streets?" Rick nods at the windows. 

"Yeah. But we'll be fine as long as we stay quiet." Rick switches his gaze between the two males as the dad speaks. 

"But listen." the other man gets Rick’s attention, "One thing I do know-- don't you get bit. I saw your bandage and that's what we were afraid of. Bites kill you. The fever burns you out. But then after a while... you come back." The two males get quiet.

"Seen it happen." The boy says. His dad squeezes his arm and smiles at him.

They all go back to eating. Later after they finish their food, the three of them curl up in the living room. The man and his son curl up on the mattresses while Rick leans against the sofa. The boy decides the quiet is too much and ask the men a question.

"Dad, did you ask him? " The man chuckles a little before he turns to Rick.

"Your gunshot; we've got a little bet going. My boy says you're a bank robber."

Rick laughs in his throat, "Yeah, that's me, the deadliest Dillinger. Kapow." Rick shifts a little and smiles at them, "Sheriff's Deputy."

"Uh-huh." The man nods. An alarm goes off down the street and all of them jump. The little boy looks at the window in fear, a small whine escaping him, and his dad immediately calms him.

"Hey, it's okay. Daddy's here. It's nothing. One of them must've bumped a car." He reassures his son, purring softy. 

"Are you sure?" Rick ask looking at the window.

"It happened once before. It went on for a few minutes. Get the lights Duane." Rick and the man get up and head to the window. The man waits until the room is mostly dark, the candles still burning low, before he moves one of the blankets to look outside. 

" I think we're okay." the man looks outside over Rick's shoulder, scanning the street for any kind of threat. 

"That noise-- won't it bring more of them?" Rick asks as Duane comes over and pulls the blanket back a little. 

"Nothin' we can do about it now." the older Alpha sighs, "Just have to wait 'em out till mornin'."

"She's here." Duane gasps as a black female Walker in a white nightgown comes into view from the side. She turns towards the house and starts to make her way over, like she knew they were there. 

"Don't look." The man tells his son in a strained voice, "Get away from the windows." Duane backs away from the window, shaking, and throws himself on their mattresses, sobbing.

"Duane. Duane, quiet now." His dad goes over to him and pulls his head into his lap, "Come on, quiet now pup. Shh shh." Rick stays by the window just watching the female Walker as she makes her way to the house. She starts walking towards the porch and out of window view. Rick makes his way to the door in the hallway just next to the room they were camping in and looks out the pep-hole. The Walker makes her way up the steps with another Walker following her. 

"It's okay, here." Rick hears the man tell his son. the man grabs a pillow and places it over Duane's head, "Cry into the pillow. Do you remember pup? Shh shh." The Walkers make it on the porch, stopping in front of the door while the other Walker walks over to the other side. the woman just looks at the door; her head bobs like a chicken as her sunken, glazed eyes focuses in on the pep-hole. The way she moved was as if she knew Rick was right there, watching her, and she wanted him to know that she was watching him too. Her jaw keeps twitching like she was trying to bite something, and her eyes drop down to the door knob. It's rattling makes Rick look down were the knob was turning. The Walker was trying to get into the house.

Rick backs away, scared, and goes back in the living room where he sits down on the floor, next to Duane and his dad but his eyes never leave the door. He rumbles quietly, smelling the distress on them both and trying to comfort them. He directs it at the Alpha, not knowing how he would react to Rick comforting Duane. He looks at the other man quick. The Alpha nods and Rick rubs Duane’s ankle. Duane reaches down and pulls Rick’s hand up to his dad’s, burying his face in the scent of the two men. Rick looks to the Omega’s dad. He smiles and nods, and Rick goes back to watching the door.

“Thank you.” Duane says.

"She uh..." The man says while he pets Duane's hair, "She died in that other room on that bed in there. There was nothin' I-- I could do about it. That fever, man, her skin gave off a heat like a furnace." Duane was still crying quietly as his dad and Rick talk. 

"I should've--" the man shakes his head, "I should've put her down, man. I should've put her down. I know that, but I-- You know what? I just didn't have it in me. She’s my Omega; my mate. She's the mother of my child. When I lost her… if I didn’t have Duane needing me, man, I would have lost it. I don’t know what I would do." The rattling of the doorknob continues even as they get ready to sleep, all kind of huddle near each other. Rick watches the door until he falls asleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They drive to the police station in a car they hot wire not far from Rick's house. Rick drives with Duane's dad in the front while Duane piles in the back seat. 

"You know, I never got your name. Seems kind of bad not knowing the name of the man who saved my life." Rick says after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Morgan. Morgan Jones and that's my son Duane. You gonna tell us your name, Sheriff?" The man says.

"Rick Grimes, nice to meet you." Rick laughs.

When they show up at the station Rick unlocks the back door for them, and heads for the showers to test the hot water out, to the joy of Morgan and his son. After they had cleaned the excessive amount of grime they had collected, all of them thankful for the hot water, they sat in the locker room drying off. Rick turns to the other man.

"Atlanta sounds like a good deal.  Safer anyway-- more people."

"That's where we were headed, before…" Morgan sighs.

"Plan to move on?" Rick asks.

“Haven't worked up to it yet." Morgan nods. Rick nods before holding out a bottle of pills.

“They’re over the counter, so not as strong, but I figured your boy could use them.” Morgan takes the bottle with a nod and looks at the label. Narrowing his eyes, the Alpha looks at Rick with a small rumble of warning in his chest.

“There were a few Omegas that worked here; the Suppressants were mandatory for when they were on shift. I don’t think they are going to need them now, but you might if you do decide to leave. There might be more around here but…” Rick shrugs and Morgan nods his thanks and apology.

The two men finish getting dress and Duane meets them back in the locker room, fully dressed and looking a lot happier. They follow Rick farther into the station and come upon a metal cage, filled with guns and ammo. Rick unlocks the padlock and chain keeping the guns inside and pulls the door open. 

"A lot of it's gone missin'." Rick says as he pulls a rifle off the wall and checks the scope; Morgan and Duane pile in after him. They fill up two duffle bags with ammo and guns before making their way around the building for anything else they might need. Finding five more bottles of Suppressants, Morgan takes four and leaves the one with the most pills in it for Rick.

“Just in case.” Rick nods his thanks and they make their way outside, into the back-parking lot. 

"Conserve your ammo." Rick says as they head to the cars, "It goes faster than you think, especially at target practice." 

"Duane, take this to the car." Morgan hands Duane their duffle bag and points to the jeep the three of them came in, where Duane heads throwing an "Okay" over his shoulder.

"Are you sure you won't come along?" Rick asks Morgan.

"A few more days. By then Duane will know how to shoot and I won't be so rusty." Rick thinks for a moment, then turns to the squad car-- 'his and Shane's' he thinks--and pulls out two walkie-talkies, turning them on to make sure they work. He hands one to Morgan.

"You have one battery. I'll turn mine on a few minutes every day at dawn. You get up there, that's how you'll find me." He says.

"You think ahead." Morgan nods and goes over to Duane, Rick following him.

"Can't afford not to, not anymore." 

"Listen, one thing--" Morgan turns to Rick as he speaks, "They might not seem like much one at a time but in a group, all riled up and hungry-- man, you watch your ass."

"You too." Rick acknowledges. Morgan smiles at him and they shake hands, Duane standing right next to him. 

"You're a good man, Rick. I hope you find your wife and son." Morgan says releasing Rick's hand. Rick nods and looks at Duane.

"Be seeing you, Duane. Take care of your old man." Rick and Duane shake hands as well.

"Yes sir." Duane smiles at him. The Alpha and his son already have the jeep started but waits until Rick is pulling out behind him before they make their way around the building. Morgan pulls onto the street, going right, and honks the horn in goodbye. Rick turns onto the street, going left, and blares the siren twice in reply.

He drives out of the small-town neighborhood and heads to Atlanta. While driving, Rick gets on the radio and hopes someone will answer. 

"Broadcasting on emergency channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond. Hello, hello. Can anybody hear my voice? Anybody out there? Anybody hears me, please respond. Hello, can you hear my voice?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rick pulls the sun blocker down, showing a picture of him, his Mate Lori, and their pup Carl. It was one of the only pictures he had of the three of them; him and Lori weren't fighting that day and so they went and got a professional family picture of them and Carl. He pulls it out and puts it in the breast pocket of his shirt. Grabbing his hat, the bag of guns and a gas can, he continues down the street leaving the empty squad car on the road.

After about half an hour of walking, Rick stops in front of a small, white farm house and calls out, "Hello? Police officer out here. Can I barrow some gas?  Hello?"

Rick puts down his stuff and hops onto the porch. He knocks on the door and calls out once again. "Hello? Anyone home?"

He walks around the porch looking in each window. As he looks in the last one, he gets queasy. A man and his wife were dead; two bloody holes to the heads and a shotgun in the man’s hand tells Rick they had killed themselves. Walking over to where he left his bags, Rick stops short at the sound of a nickering horse. Looking over to the fenced in field, a chestnut stallion with a white face was grazing on the overgrown grass. Rick picks up his things before he goes into the barn, takes off his jacket and pulls one of the ropes off a nail, before he makes his way over to the horse. Rick leads the horse to the barn and gets him cleaned up and saddled. Once the horse is good, Rick puts the bag on his back and gets on the stallion.

"Just go easy, okay? I haven't done this for years." The horse takes off running, making Rick grab hold quick so he doesn't get thrown off, "Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa! Easy now. Easy, boy. Easy easy. Easy. Easy. Eas-- Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa."

…………………………………………………………………………………..

The horse seems to settle down as they make it closer to Atlanta; Rick has him walking on the one clear side of the road.

"Let's go." Rick urges the stallion forward, staring at the traffic jam of abandon cars that looked to be left behind while trying to leave Atlanta. It wasn't until they were in Atlanta streets that the horse started to act strange, not wanting to go further in the city, whining and trying to go back the way they came. Rick turns the horse back around and urges him forward. Passing military vehicles, helicopters and local cars and buses, Rick didn't see any Walkers yet. It wasn't until they passed a bus, two streets over, that they found the dead. Three Walkers start to get off the bus, growling, which causes the horse to start whining again.

A few more Walkers start to appear as Rick looks back at the ones getting off the bus. Rick turns the horse down another street where a tank and some military jeeps were left. Rick slows down in front of the tank where a body of a soldier was laying against the tanks gun, crows eating out of one of the wounds on the soldiers back, the man's face was blown off. Passing the tank, Rick's nose starts to crinkle at the smell of death that seems to cling to the city. Rick kicks the horse into a run. He turns onto the next street and immediately tries to back away, the only thing that stops him from running head first into the street of Walkers was the horse rearing in fear. The whole street is covered from what Rick can tell, but he doesn't stay to get a good look. As soon as the two of them turned the corner, the Walkers took notice of them and started after their next meal. Rick allows the horse to take off, trusting it to get them out. The herd takes off after them, slowly, as the horse runs down the street. They make it to the tank before their path is blocked by Walkers from all sides.

Surrounded by the Walkers as they start grabbing at both Rick and the horse, the stallion rears up and Rick has trouble holding on. When the Walkers knock them both to the ground, Rick drops the bag of guns and his hat. Most of the Walkers start their feast on the horse, seeing as it was basically an easier target because it couldn't really get up. A few go after Rick, but he kicks one off him and scrambles back. Seeing more Walkers in front of him, he freezes, knowing there was no way to outrun them. He’d have to outsmart them, which has him crawling under the tank, the Walkers following him. Seeing how many were there, locking him in place on both sides, Rick places the gun to his temple.

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry." Just as he goes to pulls the trigger, Rick notices an opening under the tank and pulls himself up before the Walkers reach him. He closes the door under him and scoots against the wall of the tank, next to a dead soldier.

"Oh.... God" Rick pants out. He goes to pull the gun from the soldier’s suit and almost yells when the dead soldier turns towards him, growling. Rick brings the gun up and fires. Immediately his ears start to ring, his vision goes out of focus. Rick falls to the ground in pain when he notices an opening from the top of the tank. Standing up, with a little difficulty the ringing in his ear starts to disappear. He notices the bag of guns in the street but is unable to do anything as Walkers were starting to climb the tank. Rick pulls the lid down, the Walkers beating at it, and locking himself in with the dead soldier. Rick checks the gun he pulled from the soldier to see how many bullets he had left, then he just sitting there, trying to figure out how he was going to get out of this one. Over the sound of Walkers pounding on the tank and eating his horse, Rick hears a sound; the radio.

"Hey, you." The man over the radio says, "Dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. Are you cozy in there?"

 


	2. The Submissive Alpha Named Glenn

From inside the tank, Rick can only stare at the radio in shock, not believing that the voice was real. The walkers pound on the tank, trying to get to him, and the radio continues to static.

"Hey." The man says, "You alive in there?" The Alpha scrambles for the radio, not wanting to lose the man.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick pants, hoping his good luck from earlier will resurface.

"There you are." The man responds, and Rick thanks everything he knows for it, "You had me wondering.”

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by Walkers. That's the bad news." He says.

“There’s good news?”

“No.” Rick can't help but be reminded by a teenager; the young voice and sarcastic way the male seems to hold information.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind tellin' you I'm a little concerned in here." Rick says trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." The voice says, his voice a little raised from before.

"Got any advice for me?" Rick asks, exasperation clear as day.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it. " Rick looks at the radio for a moment, like it had offended him.

"That's it? "Make a run for it"?" The Alpha asks a low rumble in his chest.

"There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" The voice says.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick asks, hoping he could.

"Forget the bag, okay? Whatever you have on you, make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. there's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." The radio static starts up again.

"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asks.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time."

"Right." Rick says. he drops the radio and grabs a shovel from the tank wall. Rick pulls out the gun he got from the tank Walker and checks it. He scrambles back to the dead Walker and checks him for anything else. He sees a grenade next to him and grabs it, putting it in his pocket.

Armed with a gun and shovel, Rick breathes deeply before he throws the tank lid open. He makes his way towards the ally he was told to go to, shooting any Walkers close to him. Turning into the ally Rick points his gun at the being that had pushed the gate to the ally open, ready to fire.

“Whoa! Not dead!” An Alpha, probably in his 20’s yells to get Rick’s attention. Rick and the Asian man make their way further into the ally, Rick still shooting any Walkers that get to close to them. Halfway through the Asian man starts going up a yellow ladder attached to the building on their left. Rick fires the gun once more at a Walker before shoving the gun into his waistband.

“What are you doing?! Come on!” the younger Alpha yells at Rick, already halfway up the latter and climbing fast. They make it to a landing, the man helping Rick up.

“Come on, get up.” The men rest for a moment, panting, while the Walkers were trying to fight over the ladder.

“Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood.” The man says to Rick, “You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?”

“It wasn’t my intention.” Rick pants.

“Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You’re still a dumbass.”

“Rick. Thanks.” Rick holds out his hand for the man to shake, scenting the air around the new Alpha.

“Glenn. You’re welcome.” Glenn’s hands are sweaty but firm in Rick’s. Rick pulls the gun from his waistband and places it in Glenn’s backpack, Glenn taking a scent of Rick as well.

Glenn shivers slightly at Rick’s scent and the natural protective feel of the Alpha. The man had to be one of the rare Mega-Alphas; an Alpha so strong they can make other Alphas submit to them. The amount of pure Alpha pheromones coming from the man was intoxicating; the man smelled heavily of protection, calm, comfort, safety and more that it made Glenn’s head spin. Glenn looks down at the ladder to focus his mind on something other than Rick’s scent, which the Asian Alpha realized he had basically stuck his nose in the other Alpha’s arm to get more of the smell, to see that one of the Walkers had come out on top and was a little way up the ladder, with other Walkers pulling on it to claim its spot.

Glenn gets in front of the second ladder, the one that goes all the way to the roof and looks back at Rick before making his way up, Rick right behind him. Fortunately, neither of them falls off and Glenn helps Rick over the building edge after he hops down. They run across the roof and make it to a hole, leading into the building and start to throw the packs down it.

“Back at the tank, why’d you stick your neck for me?” Rick asks.

“Call it foolish, naive hope that if I’m ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I’m an even bigger dumbass than you.” Rick follows Glenn down, closing the hatch for the hole as he does so. Reaching the bottom, they gather their packs and run through the room, out the exit door on the other side, and down a couple flights of stairs, Glenn getting on a walkie-talkie.

“I’m back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley.” They make it to the bottom of the stairs where two Walkers start making their way towards them. A little nervous, the two men watch as a door opens from the building opposite of them and two other men come out in black police armor and mask with baseball bats. They start to beat the Walkers in their heads as Glenn and Rick move around them and makes their way inside.

Once everyone had piled in and the two men started to pull off their gear, a blonde Beta woman in her 30’s pushes Rick against a cabinet, a gun in his face.

“You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you.” She grits out of her teeth, trying to intimidate the new Alpha.

“Just chill out, Andrea. Back off.” A Hispanic Alpha says, his glare piercing Rick.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Andrea asks in disbelief, “We’re dead because of this stupid Knot-head.”

“Andrea, I said back the hell off. Well, pull the trigger.” The man says after a moment of Andrea not listening to him. She drops the gun and just stares at the floor, clearly upset if her scent is anything to go by.

“I don’t understand.” Rick pants out from where he is still leaning on a file cabinet Andrea pushed him up against.

“Look.” Morales grits through his teeth as he grabs Rick’s arm (Rick has to control himself, so he doesn’t growl at the Alpha, not knowing his rank within this group yet and where Rick would fall on it) pulling him into another part of the building, “We came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is?”

The man pushes Rick down a hallway, the group following them, “Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing.” The group finally stops in what appears to be a department store filled with clothing.

“Every geek for miles heard you poppin’ off rounds.” The large African American Beta man says.

“You just rand the dinner bell.” Andrea chimes in with a huff.

“Get the picture now?” Morales asks. Rick couldn’t fault them for it. The glass doors at the front of the building were crowded with growling geeks, all banging on the glass. One of the smarter ones had grabbed a part of the concrete from the road and was hitting the doors, large cracks webbing from the impact point.

“Oh God.” Someone gasp as the group backs up a little, as if the extra space would keep them safe.

“What the hell were you doing out there anyway?” Andrea sneers at the Alpha.

Rick bares a tooth with a low growl and chest rumble at the Beta. The group backed up a bit more from the clearly upset Alpha. Glenn goes as far as tilting his head in Rick’s direction, unnaturally submissive for another Alpha.

Morales turns to the black man. “Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?”

“Others?” Rick asks hopefully, “The refugee center?”

“Yeah, the refugee center. They’ve got biscuits waiting in the oven for us.” The Omega woman answers sarcastically.

“Got no signal.” T-Dog says, “Maybe the roof.”

Suddenly gun fire was echoing above them. “Oh no. Is that Dixon?”

“What it that maniac doing?”

“Come on, let’s go.” Glenn gestures for Rick to follow them and with one last look towards the door the group makes their way to the roof.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Up on the roof’s edge stands a Beta man with a rifle, shooting at the Walkers like he was at target practice. He lets off a few more rounds as the groups makes their way to the roof. Upon opening the door and running into the Georgia heat, Morales starts yelling at the man, Dixon.

“Hey Dixon, are you crazy?!” The man laughs and shoots off another round, a Walker falling dead.

The man was dressed in dark washed jeans, biker boots, a brown and black shirt with the sleeves ripped off and a leather vest. He had shaved fine blonde hair with a receding hair line, blue eyes, a strong jaw and lite stubble covering the bottom half of his face.

“Man, you are wasting bullets we ain’t even got!” T-Dog screams as he jumps over a large pipe, landing in front of Dixon. Morales joins him as T-Dog continues to tell off the other Beta.

“Hey! Bad enough I’ve got this taco-bender on my ass all day.” Dixon replies, “Now I’m gonna take orders from you? I don’t think so, bro. That’ll be the day.”

““That’ll be the day”? You got somethin’ you want to tell me?” T-Dog snarls at Dixon before pointing at himself.

Rick looks to Glenn for an explanation. Glenn just waves his head and hands in a  _ ‘no, you don’t want to get in the middle of this’ _ formation. Dixon, Merle, didn’t seem to want to give it up though.

“You want to know the day?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll tell you the day, Mr. “Yo.” It’s the day I take orders from a nigger.”

“Mother--” T-Dog takes a swing at Merle, which he ducks.

“Hey, Come on, Merle. That’s enough.”

Merle beats T-Dog, aiming for the other man’s ribs and throwing away anyone that tries to break up the fight. Merle ends it when he pulls a handgun from his pants and shoves it in T-Dog’s face. Merle looks at the man under him, then the rest of the group. Making the decision to not continue, he spits on T-Dog’s shirt and wipes it around.

“Yeah, all right! We’re gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?” He says getting off T-Dog. “Talk about who’s in charge. I vote me. Anybody else?” The others grab T-Dog and pull him away from Merle, being mindful of his injuries.

"Yeah." Merle turns around to Rick, who hits him in the face with the butt of a rifle. Merle is knocked to the ground where Rick places himself over the older man to keep him down, one knee digging Merles face into the roof. Rick quickly grabs his wrist and handcuffs him to the same pipe he had been knocked into, before hauling Dixon up to look at him.

“Who the hell are you, man?!” Merle screams at Rick.

“Officer friendly.” Rick growls low in his chest. The Beta glares into the Alpha’s eyes, showing defiance. Rick gets closer to Merle and rumbles again, his chin lifting slightly in a silent show of dominance. After a moment Merle lowers his eyes and tilts his head minutely to the side, admitting his submission to the Alpha before him. A growl echoes through the group, expressing Merles displeasure.

Rick ignores the man’s neck which has Merle narrowing his eyes. The Beta was clearly upset about having to surrender, and Rick would respect the man’s choice. He wouldn’t scent the man in front of the group; to do so would officially place Merle below him in the group’s ranks. With Rick being so new, that would obviously be a hit against the Beta’s pride; not to mention that would make him a Gamma, a scapegoat.

He decides to turn around and finds the gun that Merle had pointed at T-Dog before turning back, taking the gun apart. “Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart.”

Merle huffs, “Screw you, man.”

Rick looks at the group before he responds, “I can see you make a habit of missing the point.”

“Yeah? Well, screw you twice.” Merle looks away from Rick, to his hands.

“Ought to be polite to a man with a gun.” Rick rumbles again, cocking the gun and pointing it at Merles head, ready to fire but reluctant to do so. “Only common sense.”

The group exchange looks as they watch the man deal with the redneck. Merle’s eyes widen slightly before they narrow, calling the Alpha’s bluff with a small tremor the rest of the group was too far away to hear, “You wouldn't. You're a cop.”

Rick lowers the gun from Merles head, internally grateful that he wouldn’t have to act like he was going to kill the man anymore. In a calm tone Rick admits, “All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose.”

Rick gives the other man another once over, something about the Dixon’s behavior was triggering his inner cop. “I'll give you a moment to think about that.”

Rick starts searching his pockets and as he reaches into the last pocket, he pulls out a small bag of pills and a smaller bag of white powder. Rick’s able to make out the pills without having to examine them closely. Suppressants; why would a Beta like Merle have these?

Rick watches as Merle lifts his head and see the pills in his hands. A tick in the man’s jaw that the Alpha reads as the Beta holding back a whine. Rick lifts Merle’s head up farther and sees the fear in his eyes. Not for himself but for the person the pills are meant for, and the fact that an unknown Alpha now knew that an Omega was with their group. That had to mean that the Omega was unclaimed. The Alpha decides to keep the information of an Omega to himself. The Beta wouldn’t have hidden the pills if the group knew; it had to be a secret Merle didn’t want to get out.

Pocketing the Suppressants, the Alpha walks over to the other side of the roof, near the door, and throws the drugs over, rubbing his wrist. Hitting Merle had put a little strain on the muscles.

Morales walks up next to Rick, watching him for a moment. “You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?”

“Up the road a way.” Rick replies, uncertain.

“Well, officer friendly from up the road a way, welcome to the big city.” Morales chuckles. The two men look out to the city. The group’s content on staying quiet now, while they watch the streets below from the edges of the roof. Merle was growling loud and threatening, looking for a chance to go after Rick. The Alpha could taste the Beta’s hatred in the air.

_ ‘He thinks there gone.’ _ Rick realizes,  _ ‘He thinks I threw away the Suppressants too.’ _

“This isn’t going to work is it?” Morales asks, “I mean three Alphas in one group is bad enough. But with an Omega and three Betas, two with Alpha complexes… I don’t see how we’re going to get out of here.”

“We’ll make it.” Rick says, nodding his head, “We have too.”

“How can you be so sure?” Morales sighs. Rick looks at the other man before lightly scenting the air around him. Morales freezes as Rick scents him and relaxes when it’s over.

“You have an Omega, two kids too.” Rick looks at his hands, so he doesn’t see the look he knows Morales is giving him. The Alpha had always seen his nose as a gift, but sometimes it was too much.

“T-Dog and Jacqui are mates. Andrea has a smell on her, an Omega. Family I think, cause there’s no scent that they’ve been intimate.” Rick continues, “Can’t smell anything on Glenn though.”

The rest of the group saves Rick from having to answer questions Morales seems to be dying to know.

“My God, it's like Times Square down there.” Andrea breathes.

“How's that signal?” Morales asks as the two men return to the others.

“Like Dixon's brain… Weak.” T-Dog says, glaring at the redneck. Merle turns to him and flips him offs.

“Got some people outside the city is all.” Morales explains, seeing Rick confused look, “There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream.”

“The streets ain't safe.”

“Now there's an understatement.” Morales looks at Rick.

“What about under the streets? The sewers?” Rick asks.

“Oh man.” Morales gasps. He turns to the rest of the group. “Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?”

Glenn runs over to the part of the roof that was over the blocked ally to checks but sees only the Walkers. “No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are.”

“Maybe not.” Jacqui interrupts, “Old building like this built in the '20s… Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements.” The group looks at her in astonishment.

Glenn blurts out a question, “How do you know that?”

“It's my job… was. I worked in the city zoning office.” The black woman tenses but answers. Rick looks around before nodding to the door leading inside.

“Can you show us where it is?” Jacqui bites her lip.

“I can.” Glenn steps in, “come on.”

The group heads inside, careful to not make a lot of noise. Going down to the basement, the group follows Glenn to a manmade hole with a latter; a sewer entrance.

“This is it? Are you sure?” Morales says.

“I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it.” Glenn gulps, “Who'd want to, right?”

Everybody looks at him.

“Oh. Great.” Glenn swallows, looking deeper into the tunnel. 

“We'll be right behind you.” Andrea reassures, softly.

“No, you won't. Not you.” Glenn counters.

“Why not me? Think I can't?” Andrea snaps back with a glare.

Glenn hesitates, looking to Rick for help, a quiet whine leaving his throat. “I wasn't…”

It was strange that Glenn, an Alpha, was looking to another Alpha to explain himself. Even more so when Glenn was with the group a lot longer than he had known Rick, meaning the Asian Alpha was more likely to be the Prime-Alpha than Rick, or even turn to Morales for guidance if needed. However, Rick gave Glenn permission anyway, ignoring the looks he was getting from the others.

“Speak your mind.” The cop prompts him.

Glenn take a deep breath, “Look, until now I always came here by myself… In and out, grab a few things… No problem. The first time I bring a group… Everything goes to hell. No offense.” He looks at Rick, who just nods from the man to continue.

“If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine… But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and gotta get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person… Not you either.” Glenn pokes the cop in the chest, “You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass.”

Glenn turns to Andrea, “And you've got the only other gun, so you should go with him.”

“You be my wingman.” He points to Morales, “Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry.”

Jacqui nods, “Okay.” 

“Okay, everybody knows their jobs.” Rick pats Glenn on the shoulder and nods at the others.

Rick had seen cases like Glenn’s before, back in the old world. When there are more than one Alpha in a family, one was always deemed the Prime-Alpha; the one the other Alphas would follow. The youngest Alpha was normally forced to submit to the others in most families and groups of friends. Glenn had been forced to submit to so many Alphas that he was imitating a traditional Omega. These Alphas need to gently be given command in controlled situations to regain their suppressed instincts. Glenn’s scent lightens at the other Alpha’s approval.

Rick and Andrea decide to leave, heading to the front of the store to watch the glass doors. Glenn leads Morales down the ladder, under Jacqui’s watchful eye.

…………………………………………………………………………….

The group makes their way up to the roof to check in on the others. T-Dog looks up from the CB and asks, “What happened?”

“Geeks got through one of the sets of doors, and the sewers are crawling with Walkers. We need a way out of here, the glass won’t hold forever.” Glenn says.

Morales goes over to the bags and pulls out a pair of binoculars. He hands them to the Alpha when the cop holds out a silent hand, asking to see them. Walking over to the edge, the group starts looking for anything they can use. Rick spots a truck at a construction site that is close to their location.

“That construction site, those trucks…” Rick points it out to the group, handing the binoculars back to Morales, “They always keep keys on hand.”

Morales looks at the street and then look at the place Rick pointed out. “You'll never make it past the Walkers.”

Rick turns to Glenn, “You got me out of that tank.”

Glenn sighs, “Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted.”

“Can we distract them again?”

“Right.” Merle chimes in, “A diversion, like on "Hogan's Heroes."”

“God. Give it a rest.” Jacqui snaps. The group misses the look Rick sends her. Merle was trying to help, actually trying to help them, and they were acting like he had skinned a puppy. Rick decides to ignore it for now, making plans in his head to bring that up later.

“They're drawn by sound, right?” Rick asks, unaware that Merle had seen the minute glare he sent Jacqui because of what she said.

“Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come.” Glenn confirms.

“What else?”

“Aside from they hear you?” Morales asks, “They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you.”

“They can tell us by smell?” Rick questions, amazed.

Glenn snorts, “Can't you?”

“They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct.” Andrea clarifies. Rick thinks for a moment before getting an idea.

“Go down to the clothing department; get any long, cloth-like coats you can find. See if you can find some gloves too. Glenn,” Rick turns to the other Alpha, “I want you to go to the hardware section and find something we can use to cover our eyes. Goggles, anything like that. T-Dog you come too. We’ll need your help.” The group starts to make their way to the door, questions bouncing around in their brains like firecrackers.

“HEY! What about me, officer Friendly?! You can’t leave me up here!” Merle yells from his spot on the ground, twisting his body around to see the others. Rick stops and looks at the other man.

“Can you play nice or are we gonna have more problems?” He asks.

“With a Dixon around, you’ll always have a problem.” Morales snorts.

“Wha’cha say ya taco-bender?! Come over here so I can beat yo piñata ass!” Merle tugs on the restraint a little harder, no doubt cutting up his wrist more while doing so.

“Enough.” Rick growls, voice stern as he looks at the group, “Antagonizing Merle isn’t doing anything but pissing everyone off. All of you will leave him alone.”

Rick turns back to see the other man on his knees, an unreadable look on his face. “And if I hear one more word out of you that is even slightly offensive I will find sometime in this store to tie up your other hand and gag you.”

“Yes sir, officer.” Merle mocking solutes him before laying down on the ground. Rick observes the Beta before addressing the group behind him.

“You guys go look for the stuff, ok? I want to talk to Merle; then I’ll be down to help.” The Alpha heads over to the handcuffed man.

“Rick?” Glenn calls out. Rick turns his head and gives the two Alphas a look. Morales nods and starts to pull the group to the stairs to make their way down. The others follow reluctantly. Rick moves back over to the edge of the roof. At this point Dixon was sitting up watching his every move. The Alpha kneels in front of the Beta and raises his chin. Merle tilts his head, baring his neck to the Alpha. Rick watches the door for a moment before leaning down to scent the man’s neck. The Beta uses it as an opportunity to attack.

Merle punches Rick in the gut and kicks him away from him. The Alpha is quick to get the other man under control. Pulling Dixon away from the pipe leaves him only one hand to work with. Rick pins it to Merle’s back and shoves the man to the ground, kneeling on him to keep down. Rick bends down and places his teeth close to the Betas glands, causing Merle to freeze with a growl. After a few moments the Beta’s breathing evens out and Rick releases him. He makes sure to finish scenting the Beta before letting him up though, programming Merle’s scent into his memory. The Alpha sits on the balls of his feet while Merle leans back against the pipes.

“Now maybe you can explain why a Beta would need these?” Rick pulls out the bag of Suppressants. Merle freezes, his eyes on the small bag.

“I didn’t take you as a druggy, Officer Friendly.” Merle laughs it off. His eyes never stray from the pills.

“I know what Suppressants look like Merle. These are for Omegas; it’s a high dosage too.” Rick says looking at the tan-ish pills. “Normal Suppressants are white; the tan ones are for Omegas going into heat or already in heat.”

“I ain’t talking about this. Give ‘em.” Merle snarls, holding out his hand. Rick ignores him.

“Can I ask who they’re for? Is this all they have saved?” Rick asks, sitting on the ground fully, legs crossed in front of him.

“Why do you want to know? You have a Mate, and I can smell her on you, she’s a Beta.” Merle says, eyes narrowed. The man’s scent was familiar, as was the Beta’s and the kid’s that cling to him, though faint. Maybe he had already seen the Alpha’s family since the world ended.

“I had a bag with me when I came to Atlanta.” Rick sighs, “Inside were guns, ammo, and a few other things I picked up from places on my way here. I had a bottle of Suppressants, the Omega kind, that I got from a man I met after I woke up. Brand new, still had the plastic cover and that annoying tin cover that you gotta stab something into it to open. He said it might be useful if I got into a group; like insurance to let me in. if this is all your Omega has, that bottle might be useful.”

At this point Rick had the Beta’s full attention. Merle snorts when Rick brought up the Omega, “He’s not my Omega. It my baby brother’s supply. That’s all there is in the whole camp.”

Rick looked at the bag again before handing them to Merle for him to pocket. Rick gets up, ready to go help the group. He makes his way to the door, before he looks back at the Beta, “How many Omega’s ya’ll got?”

Merle thought for a moment, “bout six, give or take. And my brother’s the only male one. There are a couple of Traditional Alphas at base, and you know what will happen if they find out. If I don’t make it back, you take care of him, you the only one who can. You’re the only other one who knows.”

Rick looks at the man, “You’ll make it back. We all will.”

“We’ll see Friendly… we’ll see.”

……………………………………………………………

“So, what’s this big plan man.” T-Dog asks. Rick had come down stairs from his talk with Merle to find the others hiding in the stairwell, eyeing the store doors.

“You said they can tell us apart by smell. So, if we smell dead, we should be able to blend in.” Rick says as they reach the department store. The Walkers are still banging on the glass.

“And how exactly do you expect to make yourself smell like them?” Andrea crosses her arms over her chest.

“If we can get a Walker’s body, we can cover ourselves in its blood.” Rick says looking for the stuff he would need.

“Glenn, I want you to come with me.” Rick says, addressing the group. “If we use the alley way, then we can test the two Walkers there. It’s better to have the situation under control with a few Walkers and some back up close by, then to jump right into the middle of down town and it not work. If the two Walkers in the alley don’t react to us, then we can move forward to the street; get to the construction site and grab one of the cars. If not, we just have to run back inside without getting bit and come up with another plan.”

Rick grabs coats and gloves, along with a couple of other things, and hands them to Glenn.

Morales turns on the new Alpha. “Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through.”

“How much time?” Rick points to the doors, “They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever.”

The group puts on the trench coats and rubber gloves they are given. Going to the door that would lead to the alley, they go outside and drags one of the Walkers they killed into the store, being careful to avoid the other two farther up. Once inside Rick puts on protective headgear and uses a crowbar to break open the glass box holding a fire axe to cut up the body.

Glenn and Rick are soon saturated in Walker blood and guts, its hands and feet hanging around their necks. Rick and Glenn walk outside with a crowbar and the axe. They start to limp towards the other Walkers slowly. The Walkers briefly look at them but ignore them after a quick sniff. Happy that they didn’t have to go back inside and put on another layer of Walker guts, Rick and Glenn crawl under a bus and come out on the other side where a huge hoard of Walkers is waiting for them. Rick and Glenn continue to shuffle through the crowd of Walkers; none noticing that they are alive. Thunder keeps rumbling as they make their way to the gates, blocking the construction site from the rest of the street.

Glenn turns to the other Alpha and whispers, “It's gonna work. I can't believe it.”

Rick whispers back, “Don't draw attention.”

When Rick and Glenn get over halfway down the street, rain starts to fall. A cloudburst; a little spit of rain that normally don’t last long. Rick and Glenn try not to panic as they continue to walk at the normal pace. They notice that the rain is starting to wash off the guts and with it the smell. The Walkers start to move with more of a purpose as the rain continues to wash the smell off.

“The smell's washing off.” Glenn breathes, “Isn't it? Is it washing off?”

“No, it's not.” Rick tries to reassure Glenn. A Walker moves past him and growls loudly, taking a second and third glance at him before its pushed back, “Well, maybe.”

One of the Walkers charge at them and Rick crushes its skull with the axe. With that the other Walkers give chase to the food so close to them.

Rick turns to Glenn and screams “Run!”

Rick and Glenn take off down the street, killing any Walkers that get too close. Once they get to the gates the two throw their weapons over the fence and climb over it. Glenn runs over to the box to finds the keys to the truck. Rick pulls Merle's pistol and kills any Walkers that start to climb over the fence. When Glenn finally finds the keys to the truck, he throws them to Rick.

“Rick!” Glenn yells.

They run over to the only truck, sure that it will get everyone out. They enter the truck as some Walkers start climbing over the fence and running after them. One of them reaches the truck just as Glenn closes his door and bangs on the window.

“You need to draw them away.” Rick says as they speed away from the herd, avoiding some Walkers in the way, “Those roll-up doors at the front of the store… That area? That's what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready.”

Glenn looks at the Alpha in confusion. “And I'm drawing the geeks away how? I… I missed that part.”

“Noise.” Rick says as he pulls up next to a red sports car. Getting out he make sure there aren’t any Walkers in the area before he takes Glenn’s crowbar and smashes the window. The car alarm starts to sound, and Rick opens the door to hotwires the car. At least one good thing came out of following Shane around all the time when they were teens. Once the car starts Rick gets back into the truck while Glenn gets in the sports car. The two of them drive back towards the store with Glenn in front, leading away the Walkers.

Glenn gets on the radio and contacts the rest of the group. “Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street… Meet us there and be ready.”

Glenn drives the sports car in front of the store. “Come on. Come on. Get closer. Get closer. Come on. Come on.” The Walkers start to bang on the car, trying to get to Glenn. He pulls the car back a couple of times until he’s certain that most of them are surrounding his before he turns the car around and takes off.

………………………………………………………………………………

Rick pulls the truck up to the roll up doors once Glenn has most of the Walkers distracted. The group pulls up the metal doors and Rick helps up Jacqui and Andrea before making his way up to the front. The sounds of the Walkers are getting closer and he’s got to get them out. Morales helps T-Dog get the bags up before helping the man up himself, then jumps in too.

Morales looks at Rick “I'm in!”

The Alpha closes the back before the Walkers can get to them and the group makes their escape. As they drive away, everyone notices Dixon is missing. The group looks at T-Dog, knowing he had the key.

T-Dog swallows around a gulp of air, “I dropped the damn key.”

The group stays quiet knowing there is nothing that they can do now. Rick drives the group away from Atlanta, following Morales’s directions as the man joins him up front. It takes everything in him to not turn around; go back and run head first into the herd to get the Beta. Rick had scented the man, scent his glands and allowed the other to do the same. That wasn’t something an Alpha allows just anyone to do; it was something only a pack member could do. He chokes back a whine of at the thought of leaving a potential member of his Pack behind.

“Where's Glenn?” Andrea asks noticing the small Alpha isn't with them.

 


	3. The badass, kind-of-hot, secret Omega hunter and his crossbow and dead squirrels

Back with Rick and the others, the whole truck is quiet except for the few times Morales told Rick a direction to go to get to camp. After an hour of Rick silently beating himself up, the other Alpha speaks up.

“Best not to dwell on it; Merle getting left behind. The Beta wasn’t well liked around the others; the Alphas get angry cause he wouldn’t submit to them, always bucked them on everything. The Betas thought he played Alpha to much and were pissed off when he would try to make them do stuff for him. The Omegas… most of them fear him, a few can tolerate him better but only just. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back…” Morales pause, then sighs, “Except maybe Daryl.”

“Daryl?” Rick asks.

“His brother, ‘nother Beta. Those two fight a lot, but family is family. And they only had each other.” The Alpha answers.

………………………………………………….

Glenn pulls into the main camp area first and as the man steps out of the car an older man gets his attention.

“Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!” the Alpha yells down from his place on the RV.

Glenn raises his hands “I don't know how!”

“Pop the damn hood!” Shane growls using his Alpha voice while bangs on the new cars hood.

Glenn was surrounded by people from the camp asking question and yelling. With a shudder and a whine, he throws his hands up and gets back into the car. He pops the hood and Jim can disconnect the battery to turn the alarm off.

“Everybody’s fine.” Glenn says taking the time to catch his breath, “Well, Merle not so much.”

“Are you trying to draw every Walker for miles?” Shane rounds on the smaller Alpha, snarls and growls ready. Glenn ducks his head and goes to bare his throat, ready to submit to the Prime Alpha of the group and be scented in front of everyone. He was willing to bare the humiliation of an Alpha submitting to another he barely knows, when Dale steps in to save him.

Dale joins the group on the ground, watching the trees. “I think we're okay.”

Shane turns to the other man, upset an Elder was taking the Alpha runt’s side instead of the Prime Alpha’s, and that he had gotten in the way of Shane’s display of dominance. “You call being stupid okay?”

“Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source.” Shane gives the Elder a look of pure anger and the older Alpha backtracks to make peace with the leader. “I'm not arguing. I'm just saying, Alpha.”

“Sorry. Got a cool car though.” Glenn says for the old man’s benefit, happy and horrified at what had almost happened. The group looks up and sees the truck arrive and Glenn smiles. Everyone gathers around, wanting to see for themselves that everyone was safe.

In the truck Morales pats Rick on the shoulder. “Come meet everybody.”

Rick nods and rubs his eyes, turning of the truck. He needs to find his family, but he also wants to stay with the group. There was safety in numbers now and it was better to stay with them if he wanted to live.

While Andrea and the others had tearful reunions, Lori pulls Carl away from the group as her son tears up, wanting his father and for a moment wishing that he had been with them. It was unusual to bring new people back on a run, but it had happened before. Shane watches them go, wanting to comfort the pup, but still upset that he wasn’t enough. Lori kneels, pulling her son into a hug with a quick glance at Shane, like she wishes that her lover was there too.

Shane turns back to the group “How'd y'all get out of there anyway?”

Glenn answers the Prime Alpha, “New guy… he got us out.”

Shane looks confused. “New guy?”

“Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town.” Morales calls over to the van, “Hey, Eastwood. Come say hello.”

Rick gets out of the truck and walks over to the group, taking in the tents and cars. Morales continues “The guy's an Alpha cop… like you.”

Shane is the first to scent him. His eyes go wide, and he takes a step back like he had been hit. Rick’s eyes go wide too at seeing his partner. Knowing the man wouldn’t have left his family, he looks around for them. Seeing them a little farther away talking, Rick also takes a step back. 

Rick’s voice is heavy with tears as he points at Shane. “Oh my god. You…”

Carl and Lori then turn around at the voice and sees Rick. Lori’s eyes go wide in fear and disbelief while Carl’s eyes fill with tears; a sob leaves him as he walks forward slowly as if he couldn’t believe his wish had come true. When Rick starts to move towards him, Carl broke into a run.

“Dad! Dad!” Carl calls as Rick takes Carl in his arms, his eyes full of tears. The man sinks to his knees as he holds his son, beside himself with happiness. A whine leaves him as he takes in his son’s puppy smell. Carl whines too as he noses his dad’s glands. He licks it slightly and Rick squeezes him tighter.

“I knew you were alive.” Carl whimpers into Rick’s ear.

They miss the looks they get from the Atlanta group, all shocked that they had found the Alpha’s family so soon. They remember seeing Lori with Shane, thinking that they had been married and Mated and that Carl was their son, or at least Shane’s stepson. They remember Carl correcting anyone who brought it up; talking about how his dad had died before all this in a coma at the hospital.

“Carl. Oh!” He kisses Carl on the head and gets up, approaching Lori. The Beta had frozen in fear when Rick had gathered Carl in his arms. He hugs them both to his body, ignoring the way Lori stiffens in his arms and pulls away when he goes to scent her. The Alpha in him knows that something was wrong with the way she was acting but Rick pushes everything to the back of his mind, just happy they were there, in his arms.

Shane watches the family reunite and while he’s happy to see Rick, (the man was pack, his brother in all but blood) he isn't as happy as he should be. Lori face changes when she sees him watching, going from shock and disbelief to anger. He feigns a smile as Lori looks at him, and when they turn so Rick is smiling at him, Shane smiles back a true happy smile. His brother was safe.

Rick lets go of his Mate and extends an arm to Shane, still holding tight to Carl.

“God, it’s good to see you brother.” Shane says, dropping his gun and hugging the man. The group watches the family in shock. They knew how much Shane loved that gun, he didn’t go anywhere without it. Rick sets Carl down after Shane lets the man go. Rick reaches for Lori and kisses her, her fingers tangle in his hair when he pulls away to hug her again. Carl hugs his dad’s leg, wiping away his tears with a huge smile.

“Dad can I introduce you to everyone? Mom can I, please?” Carl begs with a sniffle.

“Of course, you can.” Rick says before Lori can open her mouth, “Come on bud.”

Rick takes his son’s hand and allows himself to be dragged around, meeting everyone. Even the ones who had saved him in Atlanta, though they just smile and laugh at the excitement of the little boy. It’s the happiest Rick has seen his pup in a long time… even from before the world went to shit.

Lori bites her lip, careful not to say anything. Her husband was alive; she had just seen him again after months of thinking he was dead. What did she expect when he came back; he ignores her and goes straight to his son. Just like always, their kid’s happiness came before her anything. She watches as the two of them laugh with each new person Rick is introduced to. She didn’t even have a say in this; she had wanted to take Rick back to their tent and renew their Mating Mark. Carl would’ve stay with one of the Omega, Jacqui or Carol, while the two of them were occupied. After all, it was in an Omega’s nature to care for children, even if they weren’t their own.

Lori glances around at the group, all watching as Carl introduces Glenn to his dad. The Asian Alpha smiles and squeezes Rick’s shoulder. Rick leans closer, whispering something into Glenn’s ear which causes him to smile. The Alphas pull back, scenting each other as their heads pass. They do it that way, so no one could tell that Glenn was acknowledging Rick as his Prime Alpha instead of Shane, or that Rick was accepting another Alpha into his own pack.

Lori watches the exchange with ignorant eyes, not seeing or understanding the significances of what had happened. When her eyes land on Shane who was talking to Jim and Dale by the RV though, her spine stiffened. Grinding her teeth together and with a glare in his direction, Lori leaves with a huff. Her and Shane had had sex that morning, which is why she had refused to allow Rick to do his stupid scenting her neck thing. She knows enough that her husband would be able to smell Shane on her Mating Mark. Going to her tent, she gathers her clothes and bathing supplies before going to the quarry, trying to get rid of any evidence that she had been unfaithful. 

……………………………………………………………….

Later that night, Rick sits down with the group around a fire camp, telling them his story. From remembering Shane talking about flowers, to meeting a man who told him what was going on, to finding the house; finding a gas station where he encountered one of his first Walkers (a little girl that he had tried to help and ended up shooting), the trip into Atlanta on horseback (which gets a laugh from Carl), to Glenn helping him (“You’re still a dumbass” “shut up” laughter), and finally meeting the rest of the group and getting them out of the department store.

After everyone had settled into their tents, with Shane claiming first watch, Rick follows his Mate and pup into their tent. They get ready for bed and tuck in Carl. Rick kisses Carl goodnight and scents him. Carl scents his father deeply with a tired hum and turns over while Rick joins Lori on the other side of the tent. The Alpha kneels, and kisses Lori then sits next to her.

“I found you both.” Rick sighs. “I knew you were alive.”

“How?”

Rick thinks for a moment. “The photos were gone, all our family albums.”

Lori chuckles and grabs one of them, turning it up right. They look at some photos from Carl's last birthday before Rick hands his Mate the photo from his squad car.

“It belongs in here.” He says.

Lori bites her lip and turns to look at him. She thinks about everything she said to him; everything she had done with Shane since, “I’m sorry. For everything. I feel like… When you were in the hospital, I wanted to take it all back… But the mistakes…”

Lori pulls out her necklace, toying with it and Rick notices his wedding ring, “I wondered where that went.”

Lori hesitates for a moment, her hand hiding it from Ricks eyes, before asking defensively, “Do you want it back?”

Rick stares at her for a moment, as if asking her if she was serious. Why would his Mate act like it was an insane idea that he wanted his ring back? “Of course, I do.”

………………………………………………………..

It had been Lori’s idea to get married and wear rings. Their marriage was legal in the eyes of the law with just the Mating Mark on Lori’s neck. However, the Beta had thrown a big fit that if Rick’s gender traditions were going to be acknowledged then so was hers. At the wedding, only the Betas on Lori’s side of the family and her Beta friends were happy and excited. Even Rick’s Beta family members and friends thought it was stupid to have a wedding so soon after their Bonding ceremony. But after Lori found out she was pregnant with Carl, she made all the preparations without consulting Rick. She refused to have a child out of wedlock, regardless of what everyone told her about her Bonding was more of a marriage that a piece of paper ever would be. But as far as Lori was concerned, the Bonding was stupid, it didn’t count. She went through with it because it was the only way Rick would agree to marry her.

Lori would get mad if Rick talked about the Bonding ceremony instead of the wedding, to the point that she would smack Rick if he talked about. Rick eventually didn’t acknowledge the Bonding, even with his own family and friends. Only Shane heard about it, though rarely. She would force Rick to use Dampeners and Suppressants to make him seem more like a Beta, yelling at him anytime she smelled the Alpha on him.

Lori took to covering her Mating Mark every day, either with makeup or clothing. She never allows Rick to bite her again during sex, which is when it was supposed to be renewed. She also never allowed her husband to knot her, the last time he had was at the Bonding ceremony, when it was required. When they had sex, it had to be facing each other and if Rick went passed a certain speed, force, time span, she thought his knot was to close or if he got off before her, Lori would huff and throw him off, sending him to the coach. After a couple of years of trying to please her and do it the way she wanted, Rick gave up. The two hadn’t had sex in years.

…………………………………………………………………..

Lori smiles like he had said the right answer before she takes his ring off the chain and puts it back on Rick's ring finger. Rick and Lori kiss again and Lori turns out the lantern. Rick looks over at Carl sleeping, not willing to do this when his pup was right there.

Lori turns to see what he’s looking at. “He won't wake up.”

Rick is still skeptical. It takes a while longer before Lori’s begging and promises of being quiet can convince him to continue. Even then they go slow, Rick focused more on not waking his pup, and being quiet than trying to have sex with his Mate after months of thinking the other was dead. After ten minutes of fingering his Mate, and still being soft himself, Rick is tired. Wanting to finish quickly the Alpha goes to scent his Mate, hoping her smell will help. Lori pushes her husband’s head away but it’s too late. Rick stares at the Mark, the second pair of teeth fit almost perfectly with only a tooth or two off by a little bit. But the smell… Lori had taken another Mate… and it was Shane. Feeling betrayed and hurt by his Mate and pack brother, Rick gets up and grabs a small bottle of hand sanitizer before he goes sit next to Carl, watching him. Lori opens her mouth to speak, to call Rick over to finish but with a glare from her husband, she turns away from the two with a huff and an eye roll.

_ ‘Rick will be fine in the morning; I’ll have him finish tomorrow.’ _ The Beta thinks as she goes to sleep.

………………………………………….........

The next morning, Rick wakes up on his pup’s cot and sees that Lori and Carl are not in the tent. Getting dressed in a t-shirt and jeans left for him, he goes outside. Rick greets some of the people in the group, as he walks around. He sees the Omega woman from last night ironing his uniform near the RV.

Carol calls out a quiet greeting as she sees him “Morning.”

Rick smiles at the Omega and calls out his own gentle “Morning.”

Carol pats his clothes before meekly saying, “They're still a little damp. The sun'll have 'em dry in no time.”

Rick was stunned “You washed my clothes?”

Carol ducks her head and lowers her voice even more, “Well, best we could. Scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my old Maytag back home.”

The Alpha waits until he catches her eye before replying “That's very kind. Thank you.”

Moving on Rick approaches Glenn who is visibly upset that Dale and the other men have torn apart the car that he brought in.

“Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday.” Rick chuckles with a pat on Glenn’s back and a rub to his shoulder. Glenn smiles as Rick walks off, happy that his prime Alpha was marking him as pack by rubbing his scent on the Asian Alpha. Rick finally finds what he was looking for; Lori.

“Morning, officer.” Lori smiles as she hangs up the clothes.

Rick comes up in front of his Mate with a tight-lipped “Hey.”

Lori looks him over “You sleep okay?”

Rick smiles, thinking about how he had curled up next to his pup’s bed and was able to ensure he was alright, “Better than in a long time. Although the beginning of my night in the tent was terrible.”

Lori, ignoring half of what Rick had said and was hinting at wanting to talk about, smiles and flirts back “Well, I didn't want to wake you. I figured you could use it.”

Seeing the look on Rick’s face she drops her smile and sighs “God. What?”

Rick looks at her “You cheated on me… with Shane. I can tell from the marks that it’s been renewed multiple times; which is something you were adamant I never did. Not to mention it’s fresh as is his scent. Yesterday I’m guessing, although I can’t tell when the first time was.” The Alpha hesitates to add the other thing on his mind, “And… I've been thinking… about the man we left behind.”

Lori stares at him before huffing in disgusts. “You're not serious.”

Rick is cut off by what he was going to say by the sound of a car. Shane drives back to the camp with full water containers from the quarry. Lori turns back to the laundry and their conversation, “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Asking.” Rick says exasperated, tired of the Beta’s attitude already.

Suddenly, the group hears screaming. “Mom!”

Lori looks in the direction of the forest “Carl?”

“Mom!” Carl runs into his mom’s arms. Jacqui kneels on the ground from where the Omega had grabbed Carl and Sophia and run back to the main camp with the pups. She points to a small clearing of trees and the men take off.

The group comes upon a Walker that is eating the carcass of a deer. There were two arrows on the rump and the neck was almost gone, the Walker still gnawing at the flesh. The men circle around the two dead figures. When the Walker finally sees them, it starts to go after Rick who swings the shovel at it. The men start to beat on it with their blunt objects. Dale finishes it off by chopping its head off with an axe.

They hear branch snapping and footsteps and get ready to attack again. A male Beta with short, dark hair and a dirty blonde, spotty goatee comes out of the forest with a crossbow and a rope with a dozen hung squirrels. He was wearing jeans with a rag hanging out of his back pocket and a brown button-down shirt, sleeves ripped off. He stops short at seeing Shane pointing a gun at him, other men with raised weapons behind him.

Dale breathes out a quiet “Oh, Jesus.” While everyone lowers their weapons. Then the man sees the Walker and gnawed deer.

“Son of a bitch.” He says coming around the group, “That's my deer! I've been tracking this deer for miles.” He kicks the carcass of the Walker a few times, then pulls his arrows from the dead deer, “Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?”

Rick watches the man silently. There was something about the way the man moved, the way he talked that triggered something in Rick. Shane, as the appointed Alpha that this man knew, sighs “I would not risk that.”

The man sighs looking at the deer. “That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do.”

The group moves back to the camp. Glenn comes up next to Rick and points at the man with the crossbow, providing his Alpha with the information he knew the new guy was missing, “That’s Daryl Dixon, Beta, Merle little brother.”

If Glenn hadn’t told him that Rick would have still connect the two together base on the fact that once they were clear of the trees the man started shouting, “Merle! Merle! I got us some squirrel!”

Rick rubs the back of Glenn’s neck in acknowledgement and thanks, spreading even more of his scent. Glenn purrs low in his chest at the action, happy that his prime Alpha was acknowledging him. If Merle hadn’t told Rick that his brother was an Omega, the man was sure he wouldn’t have ever found out. Daryl acts to much like a Beta to think otherwise, even smells like one. The two Alphas watch Shane walks up to the Omega and calls out to him, “Daryl… I need to talk to you.”

Daryl stops and looks at the other man who was circling around to his other side, blocking him from going any further, “About what?”

“About Merle. There was a problem in Atlanta.” Shane replies. Daryl looks at Shane, then the women in front of the RV, then the other guys that had stopped behind him.

Daryl starts to pace slightly, a classic sign of nervousness found in Omegas and a defensive move animal make when they are scared or feel threatened. Rick recognizes the move from some of the people they had locked up and Omega victims he oversaw interviewing because of his New-School values. Daryl was feeling cornered, and he would last out if he feels threatened. Rick stays back and watches Daryl’s squirrels moving from his shoulder to balled in his hand, “He dead?”

Shane sighs. “We're not sure.”

Daryl snaps at Shane. “He either is or he ain't!”

Rick walks up on the other side on Daryl quickly, but he stops far from the other man, careful to not coral him and leaving room for him to escape if need be. Daryl’s attention snaps to him and the pacing stops, just like Rick wanted.  _ ‘Give them something to focus on, and they feel more secure.’ _

“No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it.”

“Who are you?” Daryl scowls in confusion, having never seen the Alpha in the camp before. The thought of another Alpha in the camp unnerves the Omega, especially since there are now two of them circling him.

“Rick Grimes.”

“Rick Grimes,” the Omega mocks, stepping closer to Rick, “you got something you want to tell me?”

Rick decides to go about this like a cop and just bluntly say the first thing that came to mind, defusing the situation. He had a feeling that it would be better than beating around the bush, especially with this Omega, “Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there.”

“Hold on.” Daryl starts to pace again, faster, his voice getting louder until he was shouting, “Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof… and you left him there?!”

“Yeah.”

Daryl bite his lip and waits a second, then throws the squirrels at Rick to distract him. As he runs at Rick, Shane smacks into him, knocking him into the ground.

Daryl pulled his knife out, slashing at Rick blindly. Rick grabs Daryl’s wrist and twist it quick and gentle so he doesn’t break his wrist, but makes him drop the knife which the Alpha kicks out of the way. At the same time Shane comes up behind Daryl and put him in a chokehold, pulling him down to the ground. 

“You'd best let me go!” Daryl screams. The Omega kicks out, trying to get away from the Alpha holding him. Rick can see the fear in his eyes even as he glares at him. The Omega was a fighter, one who had learned the hard way to never show fear. Rick and Shane had seen these kinds of Omegas before, the ones born in Traditional homes but also raised around New-School communities.

Shane just holds him still, squeezing and rumbling deep in his throat. “Nah, I think it's better if I don't.”

Daryl growls, his eyes flashing, “Choke hold's illegal.”

The Alpha just laughs. “You can file a complaint.”

Rick kneels in front of the hunter, waiting until he caught his eye before holding it there, “I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?”

Shane squeezes a little. “Hmm?”

Daryl scowls but relaxes. “Yeah.”

Shane waits until Rick gives him a nod. The Alpha squeezes a little more, choking the Omega. Daryl doesn’t make a sound, but his breathing becomes shallow and his eyes tighten. Still looking at Rick the Omega hisses through his teeth. To Rick it sounds like a whine. Rick’s eyes shoot up to Shane, the other Alpha bares his teeth in a smile. Rick shows his teeth and hardens his gaze. Shane huffs then lets the Omega go, showing his neck to Rick briefly. Daryl sits on the ground for a moment, catching his breath, pointing one accusing finger at Shane.

Rick, still kneeling next to the man, looks him in the eye again. “What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others.”

T-Dog chimes in, wanting to come clean as well, “It's not Rick's fault. I had the key, I dropped it. Well, I dropped it in a drain.”

“If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't.” Daryl gets up and throws some rocks at the Beta’s feet, pacing again.

“Well, maybe this will.” T-Dog says moving around the younger Dixon, keeping him away from his back like he was scare the other man would jump him if he did, “Look, I chained the door to the roof… So, the geeks couldn't get at him… With a padlock.”

“It's gotta count for something.” Rick’s voice draws Daryl’s attention.

“Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him.” Daryl wipes the sweat from his eyes, a waver in his voice was the only indication on how bad the other man was taking the news. In Rick’s ears it sounded like the Omega was going to start crying. No one else seemed to hear the tremor in his voice though, and that concerned Rick. Merle might be a piece of shit, but this man was clearly nothing like his brother, yet everyone was treating him the same as the older Dixon.

“He'll show you.” Lori says, hidden disgust and anger in her voice as she talks to her husband, “Isn't that right?”

Rick sighs as he looks at everyone, catching Glenn, T-Dog, Shane, and Lori’s eyes, before looking at Daryl. “I'm going back.”

Lori scowls and rolls her eyes with a huff, walking into the RV and slamming the door. Daryl stares at Rick, like he’s calculating his words before he nods and walks off, going to gut the squirrels and clean his arrows.

…………………………………………..

Later, Rick comes out of the Grimes tent with his police uniform on. He walks past Shane who seems intent on telling Rick just how pissed off he is that the other Alpha was planning on leaving camp.

“So that's it, huh?” He scowls, matching Ricks pace, “You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?”

Rick sighs as he finishes buttoning his shirt, “I'm not saying to hell with anybody…”

Shane sighs, desperate to understand, “Could you just… Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?”

Daryl looks up from where he’s cleaning his arrows. “Hey, choose your words more carefully.”

“No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant.” The Alpha turns back to Rick muttering under his breath, “Merle Dixon…The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst.”

Rick, fed up with everyone’s attitude about the Dixons, growls back, “What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst… me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being.”

The whole camp was watching the exchange between the two Alphas, worried. Shane was the Prime Alpha as far as they were concerned, and the man had put the other Alphas and a few Betas in their place. Rick was the new Alpha and yet it seems as if the man had come and claimed the Prime’s mate and pup and was giving the Prime Alpha orders too. Noticing the exchange as well, Lori looks up from where the mothers and their kids were working on school work. “So, you and Daryl, that's your big plan?”

“Oh, come on.” Glenn understands instantly when his Alpha turns to him. While he was happy that his Alpha wanted him along, Glenn really didn’t want to come.

“You know the way. It's not fair of me to ask… I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too.” Rick nods towards Lori, who rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to come… but I’m asking.”

“Ok.” Glenn nods. His Alpha had given him a way out, had allowed him to decide if he wanted to come. He didn’t demand that he go into the city like Shane had. He hadn’t used his Alpha position to force Glenn’s hand. That was the only reason that the Asian Alpha had agreed to go; that and he knew that Shane would hurt him for Rick’s actions. Shane was a Traditional Alpha where Rick was a New-School. In Shane’s mind, Glenn had abandoned one Pack for another, and Shane would feel the need to reclaim him while the new Pack bonds were weak.

Shane grits his teeth at seeing Glenn agree, realizing Rick scent on the runt Alpha, and the situation that places on the group.

T-Dog stands up. “I’m goin’ too.”

“Why you?” Daryl asks, genuinely curious.

“You wouldn't even begin to understand. Your people don't speak my language.” The Beta huffs looking away. Daryl’s eyes go dark and he bits his lip, a deep sigh through his nose seems to release all the tension draining from his body. Numb, he goes back to setting up his crossbow for the journey with a rumble in his chest. Rick hears it and is surprised; most Omegas will purr or whine. To hear one rumble like an Alpha or Beta was shocking and fascinating. 

“That's four.” Dale chimes in.

“It's not just four.” Shane gets in Rick’s face, challenging him, “You're putting every single one of us at risk. That Walker was here; it was in camp. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em to protect camp.”

Rick steps back and places his hand on his gun, eyes narrow and chin raised, “It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns.”

“Right, the guns.” Glenn smiles in realization at his Alpha’s plan.

Shane, seeing the look that Glenn gives Rick questions, “Wait. What guns?”

“I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up.”

“Ammo?” Shane bites his lip, considering and forgetting the challenge for a moment.

Rick nods “700 rounds, assorted.”

“You went through hell to find us.” Lori speaks up, pissed that her lover was listening to her husband, willing to let him leave, “You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?”

Carl bites his lip, “Dad, I don't want you to go.”

Rick stops for a minute to calm down, upset that Lori and Shane are fighting him and now Carl thinks he was abandoning them… again. A rumble leaves him, making Shane and Glenn lower their head and step back, to the amazement of the camp. Lori continues, unaware of what she was causing.

“To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in.” Lori stands up as Rick walks over to her, “Tell me. Make me understand.”

Rick ignores the look she gives him, like she wants him to yell at her and argue. It was a look that she had given him every day for the last couple of years causing many nights sleeping on the couch when he would just do as she told him instead of fighting her. He remembers the last time he had seen her, before he was shot, and what she had said to him,  _ ‘Maybe you don’t care about us at all.’ _

Shaking his head, Rick replies to his Mate in a calm voice as usual in their fights, “I owe a debt to the Alpha I met and his pup.”

Lori, wide eye and panting, goes to gesture to their son, ready to bring him into another one of their fights, but Rick stops her, “Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him.”

Lori glares at the Rick’s shirt, not able to be mad at him for this and hating it, “What's stopping you?”

“The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer.” Rick says, seeing his Mate calm down somewhat at the explanation.

Shane groans. “These are our walkies?”

Rick, knowing where the Alpha’s thoughts are, sighs, “Yeah.”

“So, use the CB. What's wrong with that?” Andrea asks.

Shane sighs. “The CB's fine. It's the walkies, they don't match any other bandwidth… Not even the scanners in our cars.”

Rick looks at Lori as she scowls at the ground. “I need that bag. Okay? Not just for the walkie.”

At his Mate’s scowl and nod, like she expected him to explain himself without her asking, Rick sighs, “I had some other supplies. I was able to find Suppressants: Alpha and Omega kinds.”

The group freezes. Shane’s head snaps up in interest, a few of the Omegas whisper in excitement. Daryl had frozen, his crossbow and arrow forgotten as Rick glances at him. Lori follows his gaze, but only sees the chatting Omega women, Daryl quick to go back to what he was doing and ignoring everyone.

Rick continues. “If we run into another group they will be useful, especially for the Omegas. We can avoid fighting if we have those pills. What will happen if one of them goes into heat, Lori? If we run into another group with one of them in heat… they could kill us all to get ahold of them. I can’t let that happen if I can prevent it. I won’t put my family and this group in that kind of danger.”

Lori huffs, knowing there was nothing she could say. “All right I just don’t see why you have to go.”

Rick ignores her as well as he can and approaches Carl and ask if that was Okay? Carl nods knowing that his dad was right; it wasn’t fair to the man who saved his dad. And it wasn’t fair to the Omegas either.

………………………………………………

As the group packs up the cube truck to leave, Rick and T-Dog approach Dale and Jim for bolt cutters. When they get to that roof they’ll need to cut that chain and the handcuffs. Promising to bring back Dales tools and the van for the radiator hose, as well as Dale’s pick of the guns, the group gets the van ready for the road.

Daryl leans over Glenn in the driver seat of the cube van, using his foot to beep the horn, demanding Rick’s attention. 

“Come on, let's go!” the Omega yells. Rick hands the cutters to T-Dog as the man hops into the back.

“Hey, Rick, got any rounds in the python?” Shane asks setting his police bag on the floor of the van.

Rick gives the Alpha a tight-lipped smile, not wanting to be near the man who had stolen his Mate. “No.”

Shane chuckles “Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few lose rounds of yours.”

Rick laughs forcefully, “You and that bag… like the bottom of an old lady's purse.”

Shane lowers his voice. “I hate that you're doing this, man. I think that it's foolish and reckless. But if you're gonna go, you're taking bullets.”

“I'm not sure I'd want to fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time.” Rick admits.

Shane pulls out the bullets. “That's up to you. Well… Four men, four rounds. What are the odds, huh? Well, let's just hope that… Let's just hope four is your lucky number, okay?”

Rick clasps him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

Shane sighs. “All right.”

Rick gets in the front of the truck with Glenn and puts the bullets into his gun’s chamber. Daryl pulls the back of the truck down and they take off.

……………………………………………………………….

Lying in the tent Carl is on his bed when Lori comes to check on him.

“Hey.” Lori sniffles, leaning down next to her son, “You know, I bet they'll be just fine.”

Carl stares at his mother, “I'm not worried. Are you?”

Lori sighs and nods her head, wiping a few lose tears away, “Yeah, a little.”

“Don't be.” Carl says sitting up.

“Why?” Lori asks.

Carl smiles “Think about it, mom. Everything that's happened to him so far… Nothing's killed him yet.”

Lori chuckles. Sometimes it seems like her son knew her husband better than she ever would. Maybe Carl would end up like his father; an Alpha. Lori sighs, if she had known that she would end up surrounded by Alphas and Omegas, maybe she would have learned more about them and their cultures beyond the basic anatomy and scent meanings.

…………………………………………………………………………

Driving to Atlanta, the truck’s silence is broken just outside the city limits. Rick looks over at Glenn to see how the Asian Alpha was doing, knowing that he hadn’t wanted to come. He was grateful the other Alpha trusted him enough to make Rick his Alpha and to follow him back into this hell. Daryl and T-Dog were in the back, glaring at each other.

“He'd better be okay. It's my only word on the matter.” Daryl eyes are hard towards the Beta as he cleans his crossbow. Rick notices how often the man does it, like it was a nervous habit of his to calm down.

“I told you the geeks can't get at him.” T-Dog scowls at the younger Dixon, “The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us.”

“We walk from here.” Glenn stops the truck under a bridge next to a metal fence topped with barbwire. The group of four get out and start walking along the railroad tracks. The men get to a hole in the fence and use the bolt cutters to make it wider. Glenn holds the opening as Rick goes through, then Daryl, then T-Dog. As Glenn goes through the hole and starts to use another piece of wire to hold the fence together, Rick turns to the group.

“Merle first or guns?” Rick directs the question to Glenn.

“Merle! We ain't even having this conversation.” Daryl scowls, walking ahead of the group. It was obvious the Omega was unnerved of being with two Alphas and a Beta.

“We are.” Rick looks at the hunter, voice emphatic but firm, before turning back to Glenn, “You know the geography. It's your call.”

“Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first.” Glenn pants as the group starts to run towards the city.

The group makes their way through the city quickly and quietly. Duking behind cars and checking each corner before they turned onto streets, always on the lookout for Walkers. Glenn leads them to the department store. Once in the building, the group finds a Walker among the clothing racks.

Rick leads them further in before he stops, raising one hand to halt the group. He turns to Daryl who watches his every move with narrow eyes and a tight grip on his crossbow. He points at the Walker and nods at the Omega, asking him to take the lead and kill in silently. Daryl moves in front of Rick, crossbow raised and ready. Getting in front of the Walker, he comes out of his hunch and aims.

Daryl murmurs something as he shoots it through the head. He walks over to the Walker and pulls the arrow out, flicking the blood off and reloading the bow. Nodding at the others, Rick leads them upstairs.

The group reach the roof and cut through the padlock. Daryl kicks the door open just as the last of the chains fall, pushing T-Dog out of the way as he calls for his brother, ignoring the others as they enter the roof. He needed his brother and the safe feeling he always had when he was around him. He needed Merle with him because he was scared of what would happen to himself if he didn’t have his brother to keep the other Alphas at camp in check.

“Merle! Merle!”

Daryl runs over to the pipes Rick had told him his brother was handcuffed to. The others watch from the door as he runs over. They make their way over when Daryl sees something and starts to sob, screaming, “No! No!”

They run over, expecting the worst; a half-eaten body and Walkers, a Walker Merle, anything. They fall silent in disbelief at what they see on the ground. Daryl’s sucking air in through his teeth and glaring at the three of them, tears falling from his eyes easily and dropping into the puddle on the ground.

“No!” He screams again, his voice raw with pain, betrayal and hatred. 

The bloody handcuffs are empty and under them is a bigger pile of blood and the rusty hand-saw from Dale’s tool box, blood caked into the blade too. A little further there's a hand-- Merle's hand, lying on the ground.

“No! No!” The cry of destressed Omega echoes for blocks in the city of the dead, and rings in the ears of the men who left the elder Dixon there.

 


	4. Rick's New Pack

On the roof of the department building in Atlanta, T-Dog, Glenn and Rick are still staring at Merle's severed hand as they circle around the younger Dixon. Daryl was pacing, sniffling and whining silently as he stares at the blood. The Beta opens his mouth, placing one foot in front of him, going to comfort the hunter when the man turns his crossbow on T-Dog to kill him, an outraged shout following. Rick’s gun is out and pointed at the Omega’s head before the hunter can even think about pulling the trigger. T-Dog backs up with Glenn, trying to get out of firing range, but Daryl just turns the bow with him.

Rick rumbles loudly, “I don't care if every walker in the city hears it.”

Daryl keeps his eyes on T-Dog. His jaw twitches and his eyes water again, but the archer just blinks them away and lowers the crossbow. After a moment, he glances at Rick and the gun is gone, back in its holster. Daryl blinks a few more tears away and glares at T-Dog with a shuddering sigh.

“You uh…” Daryl clears his throat “you got a do-rag or something?”

T-Dog hands him one, never breaking eye contact. Daryl rumbles a purr out of his throat as he grabs the cloth, trying to ease the others without knowing he was doing it. Rick was fascinated at the noise and watches closely as the Omega leans his crossbow against the pipes and lays the bandana T-Dog gave him on the ground. He picks up Merle's severed hand that’s already decaying.

“I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs.” Daryl huffs out a sob as he folds the cloth around what’s left of his brother. “Ain't that a bitch.”

He stands up, wiping his hands off on his jeans before picking up the hand. He glances at the men before gesturing to the lesser of the three evils and puts the hand in Glenn's backpack, ignoring Alpha’s badly hidden disgust and fearful whine. Daryl zips the bag closed and picks up his crossbow.

“He must have used a tourniquet… maybe his belt. Be more blood if he didn't.” Daryl notices a blood trail and the group starts to follow it. Rick takes one last look at the spot he had left the redneck Beta. Noticing a white bag, the Alpha reaches down. A soft rumble leaves him when he sees it’s the Suppressants. Merle knew they would be back, whether he was still there or not, and the Beta had left them for Daryl. The Alpha pockets them, planning on giving them to the Omega away from the others.

Rick returns to the group and watches the Omega, concerned at the complete change of character. Daryl had been ready to kill T-Dog before, and now he seemed fine. Rick watches as the man’s shoulders heave with a silent sigh a few times with sniffles. The man was bottling all his emotions away, to focus on tracking the blood. Omegas were taught to do that at an early age, the same way boys are taught to stop crying about small things, like scaping their knees when they fall off their bikes.

Rick had never met an Omega like Daryl Dixon. Sure, the man smelled and behaved like a Beta, Rick had met plenty of those kinds of Omegas. It was the way Daryl seemed to bounce between an Alpha, a Beta, AND an Omega that threw the man off. T-Dog finds Dale’s box and picks up the tools on the roof, leaving the bloody hacksaw for last. They come upon another door leading into the building.

“Merle? You in here?” Daryl yells as the group walks down the stairs, a slight crack to it. He clears his throat and calls out for his brother again. Coming into a different building than the department store, the group splits off, checking each room for Walkers. Daryl goes into an office ahead of the group and shoots a gruesome looking Walker; their mouth a bloody mess. The group continues into a reception area and find two Walkers with their heads bashed in, a wrench from Dale’s toolbox nearby.

“Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches. One handed.” Daryl places the crossbow to rest on the ground, pulling the string back with a grunt of effort, the arrow held tight in his hand. “Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails. He always was angry he wasn’t an Alpha; though it was like a birth right, ya know? He hung out with so many of them, studying them and what not, and he got so good at pretendin’ he was one, I think his buds actually forgot he was just a Beta.”

Rick watches the Omega load the crossbow. The man’s arm muscles bulged as he pulls the string back swiftly, his grunt the only thing indicating it wasn’t easy. Only used to seeing Omegas as petite and slim with small muscle mass, it was strange seeing Alpha thickness on the Omega. Rick wonders if the man had always used a bow, or if it was a skill the man learned after the dead started walking. Realizing he was staring at the other man’s arms and face Rick looks away. It would be creepy if he was caught, not to mention beyond inappropriate because of their status as Alpha and Omega from different Packs. Throw in Rick’s cheating Beta Mate, and its one rodeo Rick will sell his soul to not enter. Rick looks back for Glenn and T-Dog, not liking a member of his Pack being so far away in this situation. When the two men were in the room, Rick looks back at the archer.

Cocking his gun and moving forward Rick catches Daryl’s eye. “Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is.”

The group continues to search for Merle, Daryl shouting his name in every room.

“Merle!” Daryl calls again as they come into a new hallway. Rick gets close to remind the man they weren’t alone. Daryl scoffs, and glares at the Alpha to back off. Rick steps back and tilts his head, causing the Omega’s eyes to widen at the submission before he narrows them with a growl. The others stiffen behind the men, waiting for an attack. “Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself.”

They come upon a kitchen where a stove is still lit. The smell was terrible, but they push it to the back of their minds when they find Merle's belt sitting on the top of it. Glenn whimpers as he comes into the room and he cowards against the wall, moving out of Daryl’s way when the Omega passes him. Rick follows behind T-Dog into the room and puts his hand on Glenn’s neck. The sweat Rick had swiped off his forehead cools against the other Alpha’s skin. Glenn leans into Rick’s wrist slightly, scenting him.

“What's that burned stuff?” He points to a piece of metal sitting next to the stove as Daryl shuts it off, with a little more confidence. Rick rumbles his approval before he picks it up by its handle and takes a closer look at the burnt meat. He pulls the black mess off and tests the texture. Bringing it to his nose, Rick takes a deep breath. The Alpha sneezes into his elbow, but he caught the scent. Beneath the smoke, blood, and burnt meat was Pack… was Merle.

Setting the piece of metal back down Rick sighs, “Skin. He cauterized the stump.”

Daryl swallows loudly, while Glenn whines about being sick, “Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle.”

“He's lost a lot of blood.” Rick holds his gun up and the group makes to move into another room.

“Yeah?” Daryl stops the group as he moves to the window, “Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap.”

“He left the building?” Glenn’s voice raises in shock, “Why the hell would he do that?”

“Why wouldn't he?” Daryl says, observing the blood trail going into the alley, scenting the window and the blood to make sure it was Merle. “He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving.”

“You call that surviving?” T-Dog huffs. “Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?”

Daryl turns on the group with an angry snarl, “No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks.”

He turns to Rick, chin held high but not neck exposing, and keeps eye contact while speaking slowly; a challenge. “You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard.”

Rick gets in Daryl’s face with a growl of his own, eyes flashing, chin raised, teeth bare. The man may be an Omega, but if he was going to act like an Alpha, Rick would treat him like one. “What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards? Different story?”

Daryl whines in his throat but clears it with a huff and tries to push pass Rick, shouldering his crossbow, dismissively. “Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him.”

Rick puts his hand on Daryl’s chest to stop him, regret and shame coursing through him for the way he was acting towards the Omega. “Daryl, wait…”

Daryl jumps back like he’d been shocked, yelling, “Get your hands off me! You can't stop me!”

Rick holds out his hand but makes sure not to touch the Omega after such a bad reaction. He cuts off the Omega’s rant as Daryl gets in Rick’s face. “I don't blame you, he's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine.”

Rick grabs the Suppressants from his pocket and places them in Daryl’s hand. Better to do this now before the hunter ran off by himself. Daryl looks down at his hand, clutching his fist tightly closed when he sees the pills. Shooting his eyes up to Rick’s, the Alpha sees nothing but guarded fear, like the Omega was ready for a fight if it came down to it. Rick bares his throat completely to Daryl, a soft comforting rumble echoing between them. Daryl breathes in Rick’s scent and Rick lowers his gaze. Lowering his voice, Rick speaks directly at Daryl.

“Merle came out here for those, to protect you. He told me that if he didn’t make it back to camp, I was to give them to you and protect you. And I will; even if you’re not part of my Pack. That’s my duty as a cop, alright?”

Rick waits for Daryl’s nod before he continues, “The group doesn’t know you’re an Omega, I get it. I’ll take it to my grave if that’s what you want. But you gotta work with me. If we’re passing you off as a Beta, you need Suppressants, more than that. I’ve got the bottle in my bag, but only you, Merle and I know it hasn’t been opened yet. I’ll separate a portion for you, and I can go on a different run to look for some for you if that’s what you want, ok?”

Daryl’s throat about closes as he takes deep breathes and nods. Rick catches his gaze again and speaks gently. “He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head. Ok?”

Daryl stays quiet, taking in Rick’s face, his body language, everything. He looks in Rick’s eyes, his own darting all over the man as he tries to see if he was lying. Seeing only honesty, Daryl relaxes. This man, this Alpha, would help find Merle but only if Daryl followed his lead. Daryl swallows again, nodding slightly. “I could do that.”

T-Dog and Glenn watch the two’s exchange silently from across the room, barely able to hear a word between them. When Rick nods again after getting Daryl’s cooperation, T-Dog speaks up. “Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?”

………………………………………………………

The group meets in one of the conference rooms, so they can go over how to get the guns. Glenn grabs a marker and starts drawing a map of the area on the floor and the others gather around the Alpha, waiting to see what he comes up with. Glenn steals glances at Rick, drawing slowly. If his Alpha doesn’t like his plan, Glenn doesn’t want to be punished for overstepping. After all, Rick was the Prime-Alpha, not Glenn. Rick smiles at the Alpha and nods his consent for Glenn. Working faster, he starts to explain his plan.

“Look. That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now.” Glenn uses some of the office supplies to show what his plan is, “That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl and I will go since your crossbow is quieter than his gun.” Glenn points at Rick. Daryl nods, it was a good explanation. “While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag.”

Rick cuts the Alpha off quick with a rumble, “You're not doing this alone.”

Daryl agrees, to everyone’s surprise, “Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much.”

Glenn sighs. “Hear me out. We’re slow in a group, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I’m fast.”

Glenn points down the street. “You and T-Dog, right. You'll be in this alley here, Walkers might cut me off and I won't be able to go back to Daryl. So, if you guys are over here then I'll go forward instead. Whichever direction I go, I got you guys to cover me. We meet back here after.”

Daryl gets Glenn’s attention and points at the map. “Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this? With a plan like this…”

Glenn looks at the others “Delivered pizzas. Why?”

The group share a look, and Daryl shrugs, “Alright then, let’s go.”

…………………………………………………

The plan goes off well enough; Glenn got the guns and Rick’s hat, which had fallen off during the rumble with the Herd the day before. Glenn had gone back to Daryl, Walkers blocking the way to Rick. When he gets there, he sees two Alphas beating up Daryl, the crossbow on the ground next to a young Omega. They turn on him when they notice he has the guns.

“That's it. That's the bag, Vato. Take it! Take it!” One yells. They grab Glenn and Daryl shoots one in the rear end with his crossbow.

Glenn calls for help, knowing Rick would hear his Packmates distressed call. “Get off me! Get off me! Daryl! Daryl! ALPHA!”

A car pulls up and they start to back up. With Glenn as a hostage, the Pack flees leaving the Omega behind as well.

Daryl gets up, dizzy and stumbles to the gate, just as the car drives off. “Come back here, you sumbitches!”

Daryl grabs the gate and shuts it before the Walkers can get at them. Rick and T-Dog arrive to see Daryl ready to beat the kid.

Rick pushes Daryl back while T-Dog holds Miguel, “Whoa whoa whoa. Stop it. Daryl hold on, what happened.”

Daryl starts pacing, looking for a way at the kid and growls. His voice resembles an Alpha as he screams at the Omega, causing the young boy to bare his neck with a sobbing whine, “They took Glenn. That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends. I'm gonna stomp your ass!”

T-Dog points to the fence. “Guys! Guys! We're cut off!”

Rick gestures for T-Dog to grab the boy. “Get to the lab. Go.”

Daryl grabs his crossbow as the two make their way down the alley. He waits for Rick, the only one ready to help Daryl get his family back. The only one to treat Daryl like more than an Alpha’s plaything, other than Merle, “Come on. Damn, let's go.”

Rick picks up the bag of guns and his hat and the group runs back into the building.

………………………………………………………………………..

Glenn laughs as the group goes back to the cube van, “Admit it Alpha, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat.”

Rick and his group, and the Pack that had taken Glenn, had parted on good terms. A group of Alphas and Betas had taken up residence in a nursing home to take care of the old folks that had been left behind. The Prime-Alpha there, a Beta nicknamed G, told them that the needed the guns to protect the medicine that was left. Rick left them with a decent load and matching ammo, in exchange for Glenn. When he got him back, Glenn had scented his Prime-Alpha in front of everyone while giving Rick a hug. Daryl and T-Dog exchanged an uneasy glance, knowing how Shane would react to a newly formed Pack bound, without the him being the Prime.

Last time it had happened was a week into the camp being formed. Two women had become close to an Alpha male in the camp, and Shane had forced all three of them into submission, scenting them in front of everyone.

“Don't tell anybody.” Rick laughs as well.

Daryl huffs as he walks a little ahead of the group, keep an eye out for his brother. It was almost dark, they had spent the better half of the day fighting with the Vatos, G’s pack, and looking for Merle. “You've given away half our guns and ammo.”

Rick clicks his tongue, “Not nearly half.”

“For what?” Daryl looks back at the Alpha, “Bunch of old farts who are gonna die anyway? Seriously, how long you think they got?”

Rick sends a stern look and a rumble to the Omega hunter, “How long do any of us?”

They come to the spot where their truck was, but it is gone.

“Oh my God.”

“The hell's our van?”

“We left it right there. Who would take it?”

Rick growl in anger, jaw clinched to keep from baring his teeth. “Merle.”

Daryl whimpers and flushes in shame, though his voice and posture portraying elsewise, “He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp.”

Rick slowly places his hand on the man’s shoulder, trying to silently tell the man it wasn’t his fault. Daryl’s attention snaps to the hand and the Alpha attached and watches it land on his vest. With tight lips, he nods his thanks and lightly scents the hand before shrugging it off, and the group starts the long walk back to camp. Glenn nods at Daryl as well, and Daryl runs a little faster to hide the softening of his eyes and minute smile.

…………………………………………………………………………….

The group makes it halfway to the quarry before Rick calls for a break. The Alpha motions for Glenn to come over to him, grabbing two water bottles from the backpack and handing them to Daryl and T-Dog. Handing another to Glenn, Rick watches the trees while the others rest. Taking a sip from his own water bottle, the Alpha sits with the guys in the middle of the road. They all lean against each other’s backs, facing every direction, all on the lookout for Walkers.

Once the group has been rehydrated, Rick nods at the woods. “I have to go take a leak. If you guys got to go, now is the best time to do it.”

Daryl shrugs the crossbow off, arrow already loaded. “Ain't nothin’ more pathetic than gettin’ bit while your pants are down. We go in pairs and one can watch the other’s back.”

T-Dog and Glenn stay on the ground, waving them away. Not wanting to wait any longer, the Alpha and Omega make their way into the forest. Staying close to the road, Rick drops the bag of guns on the ground.  He reaches into the bag and pulls out the bottle of Suppressants.

“Thought you were gonna take a piss, not inventory.” Daryl snorts. The Omega’s face changes when Rick waves the bottle. “That's…”

“Your’s.” Rick slowly opens the bag again, pulling out a plastic Zip lock bag. Taking a stick, the Alpha breaks the sealed cap. The smell of new pills catches the breeze. Rick smiles at the Omega and shakes half the bottle into the bag. Closing the Suppressants and zipping them back up with the guns, the Alpha hands the bag of pills to Daryl.

“That's enough to hold you until we can get more. If you keep them hidden with your camp gear, no one should find them.” Daryl takes the bag with quivering lips. This Alpha was protecting him, something only Merle had bothered doing.

“Thanks… for uh…” Daryl clears his throat. Rick rumbles softly with pleasure, happy that he could help the Omega. Daryl swallows and nods to the road, “We should be gettin back.  Wouldn't want your Pack-mate to get anxious, waiting for ya.”

Rick clicks his tongue with a smile, “We’ll go back in a few, I still have to piss. Buddy system and what not. Come on.”

Glenn and T-Dog are still sitting in the road when they get back. The Asian Alpha jogs over to Rick, scenting him lightly. The group continues to the camp, wanting to be closer to their people. T-Dog glances at the two Alphas occasionally, biting his lip, like he had a question but was afraid to ask it.

“Something on your mind T, you can ask. I’m not gonna jump ya, and I doubt the others will.” Rick says lightly, chin lower to seem less threatening.

“Ask away. Not like I give a shit.” Daryl huffs, observing the forest. Glenn nods in agreement, looking at the Beta and waiting for the man to ask whatever was on his mind.

“How… How does that scenting thing work? Ya know, with building Packs and stuff?” T - Dog wonders.

“Why were you nervous to ask ‘bout somethin’ like that?” The Omega glances at the Beta out of the corner of his eye.

“They don’t teach A.B.O. dynamics as a mandatory subject in schools, they were electives. I never got into it before I guess. But now with so many in one place, I want to be prepared.”

“Shane’s the Prime back at camp; he took control when the group met up. He doesn’t explain stuff about the Pack hierarchy to the group.” Glenn adds.

“Well,” Rick grins, “We’ll be together for a couple of hours while we get to camp, might as well answer some questions for ya. Most of our world is based on our sense of smell. Alphas and Omegas are able to smell pheromones that give off emotions, health, intentions… it's how we are able to tell when someone goes into Heat or Rut.”

“Scenting is a big deal when it comes to Packs. It's how we identify what group you’re a part of. But Scenting is different based on whether you are Traditional or New-School.” Glenn points out.

“Traditional? New-school?” The Beta asks.

“Damn, ya really don't know how it is, huh?” Daryl grunts, “Traditional Packs and New-School Packs don't get along with each other; they have different views on second genders. Traditional believe that Alphas are the superior gender, and that Betas are the foot soldiers; there to do whatever the Alpha dismisses as unimportant and unworthy of their attention. Omegas are Breeders; a hole to fuck and provide pups for the Pack. They take care of cooking, cleaning, and raising kids. The Alpha can sell the Omegas to other Packs, legally, and could sell any pups that weren’t the Prime’s. They would get rid of any pup they wanted to, and not all of them came from the Omegas. Some Beta couples had to give up their litters to stay in the Pack.”

“Oh my god.” Glenn whimpers. T - Dog looked ready to hit something. A Walker came out of the trees and was on the ground before anyone knew it was there.  Looking pleased with the blood on his knife, T motions for Daryl to continue.

“New-school Packs are better. They believe in the whole, your second gender doesn't have anything to do with your abilities as a person.  They're the ones that fought for Beta rights and Bonding rights.” Daryl looks at Rick, “Cowboy here is one. You can scent it on him. Your buddy and Mate though, they're both Traditional.”

“How can you tell?” Rick wonders.

Glenn speaks up, “That's more body language. Shane has Alphas on watch at camp, and the Betas do the fire wood, hunting, fishing, anything else. Omegas clean the clothes, cook, wash dishes, and take care of the pups.”

“All the pups,” T - Dog nods, “I thought Carl was Carol’s kid for a while, because Lori was always walking around, telling the others what their chores were and when shifts started and ended. Then she always smelled like the Prime, so I figured she had one of the Omegas watching her pup.”

The group was quite for a moment when Rick growls loud. “How long?”

Glenn was the only one that really knew what the Alpha was asking, “They smelled like each other since they joined the group.”

Rick lets out a noise of pure distress. Glenn leans into Rick’s shoulder and whines silently. His Prime rubs the man’s neck, scenting his Packmate.

“A few of the group members were wondering about that? I thought Mates were off limits, why would you go after Shane’s---”

Rick had T - Dog’s back against the trees before the name was off the Beta’s tongue. Rick rumbles loudly and threatening, teeth bare and eyes flashing. Daryl goes to pull the Alpha off quick, but Rick steps back and punches the tree next to the man.

“Lori was MY Mate. Carl is MY pup.” Rick rumbles in warning. Glenn whimpers and hides behind the Omega slightly, not wanting to anger his Prime. Rick backs up and breathes deeply. Pulling T - Dog away from the tree, the Beta shows his neck and shoulder, shuddering in fear. He could smell something bitter, not recognizing the smell but knowing instinctively that showing submission would make the smell go away.

“Hey T, no no it's ok. That’s not necessary man, shh.” Rick purrs at the Beta, calming him.

“What the hell was that!?” T - Dog pants. Rick whines through his nose and looks to the others for help. Daryl rumbles and kneels next to the Beta.

“This is a normal feeling for Alphas and Omegas. You're feeling a bond, the need to please a Pack member.”

“Let's take a break, finish the rest of the conversation and get back in about half an hour. We're almost there.” Glenn suggests. Rick nods and the group sits down.

“Lori and I have been Mates for almost 12 years. We met through my brother in high school and got together a year before Carl was born. We rushed to get Bonded and married cause Lori didn't want to have a kid out of wedlock. Shane’s been my best friend and Packmate since we were in grade school.” Rick sighs, “In a traditional Pack, when the Prime dies, his second can claim his/her Mate and pups as their own and take over as the Prime until they die, or they are overthrown. Shane acted the way his parents raised him to be, but I made it clear when I took him as my second that Lori and Carl were mine. We were going to raise Carl in both a Traditional and New-School area, so he could choose which one he wanted to be a part of.”

“When Rick showed up at camp, Shane should have stepped down as the second does when their Alpha comes back.  He had a taste of the power that kind of position can give you and he wants to keep it. Fine,” Daryl scoffs, “Rick can make his own Pack. You already started with Glenn, ya just need one more.”

“You're only considered a Pack when there are three or more people.” Glenn points out, “So, if you guys joined…”

“Nah. I can't join another Pack… not now.” Daryl swallows. The guys say nothing, knowing that the Omega was thinking about Merle.

“Anything is better than going back to Shane’s Pack. What do you have to do?” T - Dog sits up eagerly. Daryl nudges Glenn and the two make their way a little further down the road. 

“What are they doing?” T asks.

“Forming a Pack bond is considered an intimate act between people. They're giving us a little privacy.” T stiffens at that, remembering how Shane had ‘accepted' people into the Pack. The Alpha would make the Bonding a public event, one that would show everyone that Shane was dominant over that person.  The only Bonding he did in private was with Lori and Carl.

Rick extends his neck to the side, exposing his scent glands. Waiting for T-Dog to do the same, Rick sits still. T-Dog glances at the others, but their backs are still turned. A high-pitched noise comes out of the Betas throat and Rick starts purring. Calming down, the man looks at Rick not knowing what to do.

_ ‘Scent.’ _ T-Dog thinks _ , ‘This has something to do with scents.’ _

He slowly puts his nose against the Alpha’s glands and takes a deep breath. Not getting anything the Beta goes to pull away, but Rick holds T-Dog’s shoulder, keeping the Beta there.

“You have to keep smelling until you can catch my scent, and you're able to imprint it in your brain as Pack or Alpha. Just a little bit, because this is new to you and we will have time to build upon it at camp. I can keep you safe from Shane but only if you can catch my scent.” Rick purrs softly. T-Dog closers his eyes and presses closer.

It took less than five minutes to catch a scent other than death. The Beta’s body sags with a sigh, the comfort coming from the Alpha made T-Dog want to go to sleep. It reminds him of when he was young and would curl up with his mom after a bad dream. He could almost feel her hand on his back, rubbing in circles; her fingers gently tugging his hair as she runs them through it. T-Dog whines through his nose and imprints the smell, vaguely realizing Rick was scenting him as well. When they pull back, the Beta wants to flush, it had been extremely exposing. “I get why it's an intimate ritual.”

Rick smiles with a chuckle and extends his hand to pull up his Packmate. Walking over to the others, the group sets out for the camp, Glenn and T-Dog scenting each other easier due to them both being part of Rick’s Pack.

“So, if we're part of Rick’s Pack, does that mean we're New-School?” T-dog wonders.

“No.” Rick says, “Shane was a part of the Pack and he was Traditional.  You can choose whichever one you prefer but the Pack is New-school because your Prime is. So, you will have to deal with the differences between the two and play by my rules. Which one are you guys anyway? I haven’t been here long enough to scent you guys out.”

“New-school.” Glenn and T-Dog fist bump before turning to Daryl.

“Old man raised me and Merle as Traditional, but we converted after we presented as not Alpha and were no longer of use to the Prime, as far as he was concerned.” Daryl shrugged.

“So, we’re not going to have any second gender related problems, right?” Glenn asks the group.

“Let's find out.” Daryl nods at a car on the side of the road. Shouldering his bow, he makes his way next to it with a knife, the Pack following. Opening the door, Daryl plunges his knife in the Walker's head.

Rick reaches out and pulls the corpse from the car. Glenn and T-Dog start searching the suitcases and bags in the trunk and back seat, anything of use to the camp going in a pile to be sorted and packed up to take with. Daryl checks the actual car to see if they could drive it back. Finding no gas and the battery gone, he gives up and searches the front. Coming out, he sees the guys putting supplies into backpacks and shrugging them on. Shaking the bottle of Suppressants, the Omega walks over and hands them to Rick. He pulls out four more bottles he four in the car as well as the bags he got from Rick and Merle.

“That’s six bottles.” Daryl nods at the Alpha’s hands, where Rick was staring at the medicine, “Figured we can put mine back and everyone gets their own.”

“Your’s? I thought Betas didn't need Suppressants, they don't work on us.” T-Dog asks, grabbing one of the bottles, turning it over and noticing that it was for Alphas.

“Nah, but we needed a group. We would have left but with all the Betas and Omegas already there…” Daryl watches as Glenn picks up the bags.

“These are yours? They're for Omegas.”

“That gonna be a problem?” Daryl growls, getting closer to the Asian Alpha. Rick rumbles in gentle warning and the Omega steps back.

“Not for me.” Glenn takes the gun bag and pulls out the other pills, ready to dump them into the bag, “You're gonna want the bag, it's easier to hide.”

“Why're you helpin’ me?” Daryl asks, stand-offish.

Glenn dumps the bottle and Merle’s bag into the bigger bag, pressing on it to release the air before zipping it closed. “I was the only Alpha in my family; dad was a Beta and my papa was an Omega. My brother was one too. I was sent to live with my grandfather when I presented. He was Traditional and would have sold my brother to one of his old friends to merge Packs. I got good at hiding the pills and Scenting my brother to cancel his scent.”

“I don't like Shane,” T-Dog huffs, “and regardless of you not wanting to join another Pack, I’m probably going to imprint your smell as such. We take care of our Pack, right Rick?”

Daryl’s lip quivers slightly but he clears his throat and accepted the bag from Glenn, stuffing it into his pants and pulling his shirt over it. “Thanks.”

Rick purrs a quiet rumble of happiness as the group sets out for the camp again, glad he had chosen right with his new Pack.

…………………………………………………………..

Rick’s new Pack and Daryl are almost to the camp, running tiredly when they hear the gunshots.

“Oh God.”

“Go! Go!”

They arrive in time to see the camp overrun with Walkers. Acting fast, they grab guns from Ricks bag and start shooting. The male Alphas and Betas of the group are in full swing, killing the Walkers and protecting the Beta and Omega women and the pups that were crying and huddling next to the RV. The Alpha women were circling the huddle and killing any Walkers that were too close. When all the Walkers are dead, Carl runs to Rick sobbing and gives him a hug, Scenting him father with whimpers and whines. Rick falls to his knees Scenting his pup, tears in his eyes at the thought of Carl dying in this mess.

Everyone turns when Andrea begins to sob and wail loudly.

“Amy! Amy! Amy!” Andrea is leaning over her sister’s dead body, bite marks on the fallen Omega’s arm and shoulder. The Walker had bitten her glands completely out of her neck causing her to bleed out quickly. As everyone else gets rounded back up, Jim turns away to see the dead Omega.

“I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes.”

They look at the camp; dead Walkers and dead campers. People they had gotten to know, family. All of them were dead. Andrea’s wails stay with the group all night.

 


	5. The CDC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated this with my phone instead of my laptop. I'm saying sorry in advance.

Andrea sat next to Amy’s body the whole night. Multiple people had gone over and tried to take the Omega’s body away, offering their condolences while the rest of the group start to clean up the main camp. Daryl was helping by stabbing the corpses in the head while Morales and Glenn moved them into separate piles. One for the unknown Walkers and one for the campers. The group leaves the sisters alone after Andrea pulls her gun on Rick when he went to move the body.

While others are moving the bodies, Rick, Shane and Lori were discussing what they were going to do with Amy. Daryl leans against his pickaxe to catch his breath and sees them huddled. Ready to tell them off for not helping, the Omega archer adds his two cents about the girls.

“Y'all can't be serious.” Daryl stops next to Rick, pickaxe over his shoulder, “The dead girl's a time bomb.”

“What do you suggest?” Rick asks, desperate for a new plan.

Daryl looks at him in disbelief, eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring, “Take the shot, from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance.”

“No.” Lori growls, asserting dominance over the archer. “For God's sakes, let her be.”

Daryl watches as the Prime Alpha tilt his head in acknowledgement to the Beta who was sitting on her ass, watching everyone work, like it was above an Alpha’s Mate and Prime-Alpha’s secret lover to get her hands dirty. Rick rumbles his displeasure but says nothing. Daryl scoffs at them and goes to help the others.

‘If the Beta bitch wasn’t going to help the least she could do was get in the RV and watch her pup. Not fair to have the Omegas in there watching him after all this shit went down. Kid’s probably terrified.’ He thinks.

“Wake up, Jimbo. We've got work to do.” Daryl calls out to the Beta who was standing next to a couple of bodies. The Omega drops the axe and grabs the arm of one of the campers Morales was trying to drag toward the fire. The Alpha smiles and huffs out a Thanks.

“What are you guys doing?” Glenn stops them before they can toss the body in the flames “This is for Geeks. Our people go over there.”

“What's the difference? They're all infected.” Daryl huffs, readjusting his grip. Glenn smacks the arm from Daryl’s hold. The archer stands up fully and turns to the other man. The Alpha whimpers when Daryl turns on him, like he scared to be punished. Baring his neck to the redneck, Glenn points to the pile of campers on the other side of the RV. Daryl purrs, subconsciously trying to ease the younger Alpha whom the archer already saw as a Packmate. Glenn lowers his chin and keeps talking.

“Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them!” Glenn chokes back tears as his voice raises, “We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there.”

Daryl takes a breath and reaches down with a nod, pulling the body away from the fire, not wanting to upset the Asian Alpha even more, his inner Omega screaming at him to ease the others pain anyway possible. Morales sighs heavily and goes to drag the body toward the digging hole.

“You reap what you sow.” Daryl hollers back at Glenn and T-Dog, who was working the Geeks fire.

Morales snaps at the redneck with a bared teeth snarl, “You know what? Shut up, man.”

Daryl drops the body, causing the Alpha to trip. He’d been around enough Alphas and Alpha-want-to-be’s to know baring teeth was a challenge; a fight. As an Omega, he’d be at a disadvantage, even with Merle’s and Will’s special training. And he had no desire to add to his collection of scars. He goes to pick up his axe again, needing to vent a little frustration on something, lest he take it out on someone. “Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this coming! At least ya’ll HAVE bodies to bury!!”

Rick saw the commotion and heard Daryl’s shout. Starting in the direction of the Omega to calm him down, Jacqui grabbed the whole camps attention, “A Walker got him! A Walker bit Jim!”

The Alphas start to circle him, worried. Rick pats Jacqui on the shoulder and points her in Lori’s direction, trying to keep her calm when they start yelling at Jim to show them the bite. The Beta picks up a shovel from the ground, ready to defend himself if it got violent. T-Dog comes up behind him silently and catches Jim arms, pinning them to his back to holds him with a rumble to warn him not to fight back. Daryl lifts Jim's shirt, revealing a deep set of teeth marks, causing everyone to back away from Jim while the man repeats that he’s ok.

“Ok we need to handle this calmly.” Rick steps up to defuse the tension, “We need to finish burning the bodies and moving the dead into piles away from camp.”

“What? Are we just going to leave him like that, man? The hell are we gonna do about Jim, huh Rick?” Shane growls at the other Alpha with a glare, challenging him.

“No, but we don’t want everyone to start panicking either.” Rick snares back at his partner in anger, raising his chin and puffing out his chest with a glare of his own, “Having everyone working will give them something to focus on; to keep them calm while we figure out what to do with the situation. If you want to be part of the discussion, you’re more than welcome. Otherwise, we keep burning and moving the bodies.”

A small group gathers around Rick as him and Shane have a stare down, while others keep cleaning up. Shane growls low in his chest but showed Rick his neck, much to the disgust of Lori and surprise of the rest of the group. Jim had taken a seat next to the RV and was watching them silently.

Daryl was the first to speak up, “I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it.”

Shane turns to the Omega and snarls back, “Is that what you'd want if it were you?”

“Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it.” Daryl growls. Shane bares his teeth and starts at the archer, who pulled the axe closer to his chest with a rumble himself. Rick gets between them, glaring. He places one hand on Daryl’s chest and the other hand on Shane’s. The Omega backs down gracefully while the Alpha shoves past Rick and tries to grab the Omega, ready to show the archer his place as a Beta. Rick gets in Shane’s face and bares his teeth, ready to defend the Omega he considers Pack.

“Do not make me make you submit, brother. He is not worth you gettin’ your teeth knocked in. Then we'll be down a man, and we'll need every able body today. You pickin’ a fight with him is only going to end with you hurt.” Rick clicks his tongue, disappointed in his second’s behavior. Daryl swallows his retort he was about to spit at the Alphas, ready to tell Shane off for thinking he was weak and Rick for making him believe that the Alpha was different from the others. He decides to hold his opinion of the Alpha for the time being.

“The Beta ain't that strong, I could easily get him to submit. The bastard needs to know his place in my Pack.” Shane moves to go around Rick. Glenn and T - Dog move closer to the Omega, ready to defend their Packmate. Rick rumbles loudly and threatening at the other man, telling him one more time to back off. Shane snarls with bare teeth, shoving the Alpha away and Rick snaps. Grabbing Shane’s collar, he pulls the man down, underneath him and forces his head to the side, neck bared. The Alpha snarls at Rick but stays down. He lowers his chin silently and allow his Prime to move him as he wishes.

Everyone stops and stares at the display, the crowning of a new Prime Alpha. Rick rumbles softly and strokes Shane’s neck before pulling him to his feet. Patting the Alpha on the back, Rick looks at the others. Everyone gets back to work, either moving bodies or discussing the situation at hand. Daryl watches Rick as the man places himself between his Pack and Shane. Nodding to Lori, Shane goes where the other Alpha sends him next to his lover. Lori scuffs in displeasure, watching Rick. Said Alpha turns to his Pack, scared they would react badly.  T - Dog and Glenn lower their chins respectively, smiling at how their Prime had handled it. When Rick’s gaze falls on Daryl, the Omega lifts his chin slightly to the side, showing the Alpha his own bit of respect and submission. Rick rumbles softly with pleasure and turns to the group.

Dale sighs. “I hate to say it… I never thought I would… but maybe Daryl's right.”

Rick shakes his head. “Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog.”

The Elder tries to backtrack, not knowing how the new Prime would react, “I'm not suggesting…”

Rick cuts him off. “He's sick. We start doing that and where do we draw the line? What if we can get him help? The CDC…”

The group gets into a heated debate over either taking the Beta, and the camp, to the CDC or to Fort Benning, an army base a hundred mile in the opposite direction. Daryl watches the Alphas argue like a tennis match, biting his lips in consideration. Twisting the axe in his grip, he looks at Jim who was watching all of them while rubbing his hands together. When the Omega has had enough, he turns to his Prime.

“Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!” Daryl tightens his grip on the axe and charges at the bitten Beta, ready to swing the blade into Jim’s head. Rick follows and points his gun at the Omega’s head.

Rick grits his teeth in anger. Daryl had acknowledged Rick as his Prime, and then disregarded the Alpha’s decision. To do something like that was a challenge. Knowing how Daryl would react to him pushing his dominance over the archer though, Rick handles it without the Pack dynamics. “We don't kill the living.”

Daryl lowers the axe and turns to the Alpha slowly. Seething, Daryl gets closer to Rick, laying his forehead on the barrel of the Prime’s gun. “That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head.”

Daryl slams the pickaxe down with a grunt and gets up close to Rick. “Ain't scented; ain't yours. Remember that...Alpha.”

Rick watches him go before grabbing Jim, “Come with me, I’m taking you somewhere safer.”

…………………………………………………………………

Rick and Shane were digging graves near the campsite after Rick got Jim situated in the RV with one of the Omegas watching him. Shane was shoveling the dirt with excessive force and growls, sneaking dirty looks at his Prime. Fed up, the Alpha stops digging and leans on his shovel, snapping at the other man, “Say it.”

“Okay.” Shane puckers his lips and clicks his jaw to keep himself from baring his teeth, “If you had stayed here, if you'd have been here to protect camp and OUR Pack…you left. If you had stayed…” Shane shakes his head and goes back to digging.

Rick scoffs at the Alpha and rumbles back, voice raised, “If we hadn't gone off and brought those guns back…it would have been a lot worse. Maybe the entire camp!”

Shane spits at the ground and glares at Rick. “At least I was here! What would have happened if I had gone with ya, huh?! What would have happened to your pup… to Lori? She's your wi- your Mate and you left her.”

“You mean your Mate.” At Shane’s wide eyes and whine, Rick turns to look at the Alpha. “What? You really think I wouldn't notice?”

“Now, brother… I can explain…”

“Explain what Shane? I told you when you submitted to me back in high school that she and Carl were mine. We agreed to that. I get it, if ya’ll thought I was dead and that is what you do in a Traditional Pack, but me and Lori were having trouble before all this. We haven't been TOGETHER like that in years. The first night I come back she doesn't let me Scent her but then she wants me to take her with Carl right there…” Rick clicks his tongue and shakes his head, “I knew somethin’ happened. Then I smell you on her… Take her if she wants you. I refuse to have a cheating Mate. But if you force her man, I will make you submit like a Traditional Omega. Understand me, brother?”

Shane whines and bares his throat completely to the Prime, agreeing to whatever the Alpha wanted. Rick purrs softly and the two guys go back to digging, “I’ll talk to Lori and Carl. Tell them about this discussion. But Carl is MINE… he is my pup. Try to claim him as your own, and I will bury you.”

Daryl drives the truck to the graves, tailgate first, cutting off the Alphas discussion.  As Daryl gets out of the driver seat he huffs, “I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?”

Shane sighs as the rest of the camp comes up the hill and agrees, “At first.”

“So, what, Korea over here gets all emotional…we just follow him along? Who the hell's in charge here? What are the rules?”

“There are no rules, Daryl. Not anymore.” Rick sighs, standing up while he addresses the Omega.

“Well, that's the problem.” Lori interrupts with a huff as the rest of the camp arrvies, “We haven't been able to hold onto anything from the old world. We need time to mourn… we need to bury our dead. Its what people do.”

The group bury the dead campers, placing families together because of the lack of holes. Amy’s body was the last to go in the ground, Andrea crying as she drags the Omega’s body in. Dale moves to help but the Beta waves him off. Everyone goes back to camp once everyone has had the chance to mourn. Rick goes into the RV to check on Jim, while Lori sits outside. Carl was hanging out with Sophia and Carol, trying to keep the two Omegas calm and distracted in his own way.

Ed was dead; Sophia’s father and Carol’s Alpha Breeder. His face had been destroyed from where Carol had taken Daryl’s axe and smashed his face, letting out all her hurt and anger at the Traditional Alpha from over the years. The abuse she had suffered from him and his family had taken its toll on her; the sleepless nights worrying about how her pup was going to present and what would happen after. Years of mental, sexual, and physical abuse was released into the man’s face, and the Omega had almost told them to burn the body with the Walkers. Not wanting Sophia to see that though, she allowed the Alpha to be buried with the others.

The Omega archer had had to pull her away and calm her down; she had been sobbing and covered in his blood.

“Have you talked to Rick?” Outside the RV Shane joins his Mate. Lori shakes her head, and glares at the Alpha. “The C.D.C… Lori, it's a mistake, help me talk some sense into him.”

Lori sighs, standing, and shakes her head again. Shane huffs in astonishment, “What…So you're backing him, now? Rick and the CDC, that’s our plan?”

Lori sounds tired as she replies, “What else would I do? He's my husband.”

Shane gets in her face, nasty, “You bare MY bite, you are MY MATE. I protected you and your pup, not Rick. And you trying to… fix… your broken marriage is not worth the lives of the group.”

“I am Rick’s WIFE, not your Mate. And I think folks around here can make up their minds without bringing my marriage into it. It's one of the habits you need to break.” Lori snarls back at the Alpha with a whisper.

“What habits?” The two turn to see Rick standing in the doorway of the RV, having heard most of the conversation.

The Alpha smiles and tries to joke it off, “My need for a plan, man. Are we leaving or not?”

Lori steps up next to Rick and lays one hand on Rick’s arm, staring her lover down while talking to her husband, “I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut. To go to the CDC or wherever else you think would be safe.”

“Really? You think so?” Rick tries to call her out on her bullshit. Lori just smiles at him and nods. Rick rumbles his displeasure and moves the Beta’s hand off his arm, calmly dragging the two behind the RV, “Both of you, come here. NOW.”

Turning to his wife, Rick pulls out a wad of papers stapled together and highlighted in multiple places. He keeps his eyes on Lori as he hands them to the Alpha.

“I stopped by the house before comin’ to Atlanta and found these. The date is about a month before I was shot and entered the coma. Going by how long I was told this shit started, that was three months ago, I didn't read them until I got here. After the first night... finding out my Mate had been unfaithful… that would have been something we could have worked on if you BOTH had come to me and explained the situation. The trying to hide your Scent and have me Mate you without Scenting though… and then I pull theses out to calm down, thinking it was something of Carl’s from school…”

Lori tries to grab the divorce papers from her lover. Shane holds them out of her reach while he stares at the signatures. Lori’s was older than Rick’s, meaning the Alpha had only signed them recently. But it was true. Lori had given up on Rick when the Alpha would have needed his Mate the most. Flipping through the pages, Shane holds up the one page not signed; the custody papers of Carl.

When Rick holds out his hand for the papers, Shane gives them back to his Alpha without hesitation. Rick rumbles his thanks and puts them back in his pocket. “I signed them this morning since you were kind enough to fill out the rest. All except for Carl’s that is. As far as I'm concerned, you're not my wife anymore. I'm not your husband or your Mate. Your Shane’s so don't act like you're still mine. I will be discussing this with Carl and we'll figure out what to do about it later. But because you are both still part of my Pack, I will still be protective of you two.”

Rick takes off his wedding ring and gives it to Shane. “Carl is still my pup and if you try to take him from me, I will make you regret it.”

Lori bites her lips in frustration and walks away sniffing back tears, saying something about checking on Carl. The two Alphas depart to sweep the forest for Walkers.

……………………………………………………………………

At dawn, Rick tries to reach Morgan, explaining that they were going to the CDC. They leave a note and a map on the sports car for the Alpha, so he could follow them if he wants to. Morales and his family leave, wanting to be with their own Pack in Birmingham. They leave Jim on the side of the road to turn when the ride becomes too much for the Beta.

When the caravan arrives outside the CDC, the group gasp at the sight. Surrounding the building are a lot of corpses, as well as swarms of flies. The military had been overrun, their vehicles and camps are buried under the hundreds of bodies lying on the ground. The group approaches the building quickly, quietly, and carefully, making sure to check each body to see if it’d move.

Rick and Daryl watch the group from the back and the side, Shane and T - Dog leading. Carol keeps the pups under her arms with hands over their eyes enough, so they can't see the massacre but not trip over the bodies. When Rick notices that the Omega was taking care of his pup instead of his mother, Rick growls at Lori. With a scowl, the Beta takes her son’s hand and pulls him along behind her. Daryl pushes the Omega and her daughter forward gently with a purr.

“Best stay closer to the middle of the group, it’s safer there. Try to herd Mrs. Queeny over there too… don't want to lose one of the pups in this mess.” Daryl huffs, readjusting his grip on the crossbow. He keeps it aimed at the bodies but could hear his fellow Omega thank him and move closer. Rick catches his gaze and nods his thanks as well, showing his throat a little. Daryl copies the gesture and shuffles over to the Alpha, hesitantly rubbing his hand on Rick’s arm.

“Let me know if you change your mind.” The Alpha smiles. Daryl swallows and nods his consent, knowing the Alpha was offering a place in his Pack to Daryl.

Shane leads them to the doors, rifle raised and cocked, “All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together.”

They reach the building, gagging and gasping, tears in their eyes from the sight and smell. Shane pounds on door which is locked and shuttered.

“There's nobody here.”

“Then why are these shutters down?” Rick tries to find a way in.

“Walkers! You led us into a graveyard Rick!”

“He made a call Dixon!”

“It was the wrong damn call Walsh!”

Shane turns to his Prime Alpha, “Rick, this is a dead end. Do you hear me? No blame. Fort Benning, Rick… Still an option.”

“We can't be here this close to the city after dark.”

“On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles.”

“125. I checked the map.”

Rick catches sight of the security camera's movement. “The camera… it moved. I saw it move.”

Shane tries to drag Rick away from the doors, “Rick, it’s dead, man. It's gears, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick.”

Rick slams on the shutters. “I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, pups, no food, hardly any gas left. We have nowhere else to go. If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!”

Shane tries to drag his Alpha away, with the help of his Mate. “Everybody get back to the cars now! Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go!”

Rick ignores his Pack and pounds on the door. “Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!”

Shane drags Rick away from the doors, his shirt fisted in his hand. Ready to man-handle the Alpha to the car, Shane starts towards the rest of the group. Just as they’re about to leave, go back to the cars and hide in the RV until morning… the door to the CDC opens, drowning the survivors in light.


	6. TS-19

The group stands outside the C.D.C. staring at the open door in shock. Rick raises his gun and moves towards the doors, ready for anything or anyone on the inside. The others follow closely, not wanting to be anywhere near the Walkers. Daryl stays next to the doors with his gun up, while the others make their way into the building. Keeping watch, the Omega listens in.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick leads the group into the empty lobby. Calling out for the person who opened the door, the Alpha tries to keep his voice low, "Hello?"

The group turns when they hear a gun cock and find another Alpha with a military issued machine gun. "Anybody infected?"

Rick lowers his gun slightly, a rumble of warning escaping his chest. The group moves closer together, Sophia whining slightly as Carol pulls her closer. Rick and Shane move in front, keeping this new Alpha away from their Packs. Rick clears his throat. “He didn’t make it."

The doctor observes the group, deciding, "You all submit to a blood test. That’s the price of admission.”

Rick nods, thankful that this Alpha was allowing two unknown Packs onto his territory without a fight, “We can do that.”

Shane glares at his Prime but nods his consent as well. Jenner lowers his weapon. “If you’re bring stuff in, do it now. Once this door closes it stays closed.”

………………………………………………

Andera was the last to have her blood drawn, and after almost passing out, Dr. Jenner took the group to the cafeteria, Daryl’s crossbow loaded and pointing at his head the whole time. Rick lays a hand on the Omega’s shoulder, causing the man to lower it with a sideways glance.

“Try to be more discreet about not trusting him. We don’t want the pups and their mothers freaking out right now. We’re in this Alpha’s territory and we can’t afford to be kicked out. Be ready if the guy pulls something, but not bluntly threatening, ok?”

Daryl nods and shoulders his bow, one hand resting on his knife. He leans in to scent Rick’s hand before moving away from him causing the Alpha to nod at the Omega archer with a smile. He moves to sit next to his pup and Lori where they are seated at a large round table eating pasta, while Dale passes the wine.

“You know,” The Elder chuckles, pointing the bottle at Carl, “in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France.”

Lori smiles from where she was laying her hand over her son’s glass, “Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then.”

Rick turns to the Beta laughing, “What’s it gonna hurt? Come on.”

Lori shares a look with her husband, ready to snap at him for disagreeing with her, when she sees Carl’s face and the smiles on everyone else’s. Shaking her head, because she knows if she causes a scene Rick would be pissed at her, she allows Dale to pour a small amount into the cup. Anything was worth getting back in the Alpha’s good graces, so the three of them could be a family and Rick could forget about the divorce papers.

“Eww.” Carl’s reaction to the taste has the whole table laughing, including Jenner and Daryl. Lori pours his wine into her glass, while telling Carl to drink some soda like Sophia.

Daryl grabs the bottle and pours more into his glass, making the whole table go quiet, “Not you, Glenn.”

Glenn looks up blankly at the Omega, “What?”

“Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get.” Daryl laughs along with the others when Glenn tips his cup back and swallows the rest, raising the cup to show it was empty, the Asian Alpha was just happy the archer was being social. The men cheer as Daryl pours more into Glenn’s cup.

Rick turns to see how everyone was doing and notices that Jenner isn’t enjoying the party. He takes his fork and taps his glass, standing up. “It seems to me we haven’t thanked our host properly.”

“He is more than just our host.”

“Here’s to you, Doc, booyah!”

“Booyah!”

“Thank you. Thank you, Doctor.”

“Booyah!”

Shane decides that the Packs had had enough fun. Now they needed answers. “So, when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc? All the—the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?”

Rick glares at the Alpha. His rumbles of warning could be heard throughout the now silent room. Shane glares right back at Rick, letting out his own rumble. Rick bares his teeth at his second, daring him to challenge his Prime. Carol pulls her pup closer to her with a whine, while Carl tries to bury himself into Lori’s side when Rick stands up. Lori was watching the silent battle with little interest to her son. When Carl lets out a minute whimper, it was Daryl who laid his hand on the pup’s shoulder, lightly scenting him and offering comfort.

Glenn and T-Dog notice from where they had stood up as well, waiting for a signal from their Prime on how to handle the situation. They share a smile at seeing the Omega comforting the Alpha’s pup and a frown for Lori’s dismissal of sorts to her son. Lori might be a Beta, so her instincts weren’t as strong as Daryl’s were to provide comfort to a distressed pup, but it still should have triggered something in her.

Rick scowls when the other Alpha refused to back down, “We’re celebrating, Shane. We don’t need to do this now. Back down.”

“Whoa, wait a second. This is why we’re here, right? This was your move—supposed to find all the answers. Instead we—we found him. Found one man. WHY?” Shane chuckles darkly.

Jenner had been watching the two Alphas with a deep-seated curiosity. It was unusual for two Alpha males to be a part of one Pack. When their attention focused on him though, he sighs, “When things got bad, a lot of people went off to be with their families. Many… opted out. There was a rash of suicides.”

Andrea joins the conversation, “You didn’t leave. Why?”

The Alpha grimaces, “I just kept working, hoping to do some good.”

Glenn sighs heavily, looking at Shane, “Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man.”

Jenner shows them the rest of the living area when everyone finished eating; telling them where they can sleep, and a rec room with some games for the pups. Reminding the whole group to not plug in anything that draws power and to go easy on the hot water, Jenner returns to Zone 5 to test the blood samples. The group takes turns showering, ecstatic at the feeling of hot water. When Rick was done with his shower, having ignored Lori’s beckoning into her’s, he checks in with his Pack. Carol had the pups occupied with some games in the rec rooms and Glenn and T-Dog were playing cards in their room. Rick Scents them both with the door closed before moving on. Dale was on his way to his shower and had stopped to help Andrea clean up her puke. Lori and Shane were nowhere to be found. As he passes one of the open doors he sees Daryl who was sitting on a cot drinking straight out of one of the bottles. Rick walk into the Omega’s room and clears his throat. Daryl look up at the Alpha and gestures for him to close the door. Once the door was closed, Rick walks over to Daryl and sits on the ground next to the cot.

“The hell ya doin’, Rick?” The Omega snorts.

“It’s a technique we are taught in the academy to calm distressed Omegas. I figured this would be the appropriate way to go about being in your territory, since you claimed this room.” Rick shrugs. “I went to check with Jenner about the blood and apologized for the stare down at dinner. I might have said something I’ll regret tomorrow, though.”

“Why the hell you tellin me, Alpha?”

“Because I know that you'll tell me off regardless if I'm an Alpha. If I do or say something out of line, you’ll set me right. Shane used to be the one that would, but I don't think I can trust him again. Not after Lori.” Rick clicks his tongue with a sorrow filled smile.

“You might be an Alpha but you're still human. Why me though? You got Glenn and T - Dog as Pack, why me?” Daryl grunts with restrained curiosity.

“They would have my back, I don't doubt it. But Glenn is beyond submissive for an Alpha and T - Dog was always part of a Traditional Pack; I feel that he might not know what to do in some situations and I will go beyond what an Alpha is supposed to do. I know you will knock me on my ass if I push too much.”

Daryl huffs, secretly pleased and honored that Rick would trust him so much. “What’cha say that ya think you'll regret?”

“That it was only a matter of time before we all die and that we…OOWW!” Rick growls loudly as he cradles his head, rubbing the spot where Daryl had hit him. The Alpha grimaces when he puts pressure on the bump and turns to the Omega who was glaring at him as he takes a sip from his bottle.

“You're an idiot Grimes. The hell ya thinking saying shit like that.” Daryl huffs, grabbing Rick’s arm and pulling him up on the cot.

“I was thinking that the last thing I remember was getting shot in a car case and being loaded in an ambulance wondering if I was going to see my pup again while Shane went to tell my Mate I was in a coma. I wake up and the dead are eating people, my Mate is fucking my best friend, my pup thought I was dead and I've got a new Pack I’m responsible for before it can even register that my life is gone. My family… everything I knew… gone, dead.”

“Shit Rick, ain't no one expecting you to take care of everyone. If ya needed help I'm sure ya would have gotten it.”

“Lori said that it’s been three months since I was in a coma, two since this whole thing started. Everyone has had months to come to terms with everything.” Rick sighs and lays down on the cot, looking up at the ceiling, “I’ve had four days.”

“Four what?” Daryl looked a little surprised at the reveal. “You're handlin’ it better than most people.”

“Yeah. I think I outta get ready for sleep. Gotta check on Carl, then find out where I'm sleeping.” The Alpha gets up with a grunt and wipes his hands on his jeans. “Thanks again Daryl.”

………………………………………………………………………..

Jenner leads everyone into the big room after breakfast the next morning. Most stumble after slowly, holding their heads and groaning. Daryl snorts at them as he passes them and makes it to the front with T-Dog and Rick.

“Bunch of sissy can’t take a little hangover. Wasn’t even the good shit.” Rick looks at Daryl, one eyebrow raised, causing the Omega to laugh at Rick’s bloodshot eyes. “Sissy.”

The men chuckle as the group gathers around Dr. Jenner at his computer station. “Give me a playback of TS-19. Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few.”

Up on the wall an oversized display shows varying 3-D views of human skulls. The main screen changes to show the upper shoulders and head of the subject. The screen skews to a horizontal view then increases the magnification. The image becomes more and more detailed. The magnification shows the inside the skull. It appears to be lit with bright blue threads of energy. Some areas are denser with light than others but there are lighted threads throughout the skull. The detail zooms in until the threads become closer and pulses of light can be distinguished.

“What are those lights?”

Jenner addresses the Alpha who asked the question, Shane, as he speaks, “It’s a person’s life—experiences, memories. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you—the thing that makes you unique and human.”

Daryl rubs his face with a sigh. “You don’t make sense ever, do ya doc?”

Jenner points at the blue lights on the screen, “Those are synapses; electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death. This is a vigil… or rather the playback of the vigil, for Test Subject-19. Someone who was bitten and infected… and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, Scan forward to the first event.”

The brain has lights still flickering in the outer areas, but the center has become dark as if black roots were growing inside. Glenn gasps at the image of the spreading darkness in the brain; blue lights being replaced with red. “What is that?”

“It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death.” Jenner clears his throat as the brain goes black, all the lights gone, “Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone. Scan to the second event. The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute… seven seconds.”

A red glow flickers at the base of the brain. The rest remains dark. Random sparks shoot out into the larger area of the brain, but no further lights grow.

“It restarts the brain?” Lori asks in shock, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

“No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving.” Jenner says.

Rick watches the body move as he walks closer to get a better look, “But they’re not alive?”

Jenner gestures to the monitor, “You tell me.”

Rick shakes his head no, “It’s nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark.”

“Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn’t come back; the you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct.” The subject moves, its mouth opens and closes. The head moves side to side, the shoulders move as if the arms were being lifted. The barrel of a gun appears at the forehead pointing down. A bullet enters the brain and tears through the red cluster of embers. The brain goes completely dark, the subject stops moving.

“God. What was that?”

Jenner starts to shut down his computer, “VI, Power down the main screen and the workstations.”

“He shot his patient in the head. Didn’t you? You have no idea what it is, do you?” Andrea looks at the Alpha, waiting for an answer while the computer was powering down the main screen and workstations.

“It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal.”

“Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…” Dale points at the huge clock on the wall as it hits one hour, “that clock—it’s counting down. What happens at zero?”

“The basement generators—they run out of fuel.”

“And then? VI, what happens when the power runs out?” Rick asks when Jenner ignores the question and walks out of the big room.

The computer answers, “When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.”

……………………………………………………..

Jenner had locked the group in zone 5, waiting for the HITs to detonate and set the air on fire. After a couple attempts on Jenner’s life, which Rick had broken up before the doctor was hurt, the Alpha begged Jenner for a second chance. Once the doors were reopened everyone, but Jenner, Jacqui, Andrea and Dale run up the stairs to the ground level. T-Dog and Daryl run for the doors, banging against them. T-Dog tries the electronic security pad beside the door.

“Try it! Try it! Try it now!”

“Daryl!” The Omega tosses the axe into Shane’s hands. They both start hitting the glass, but it doesn’t break. T-Dog makes a run at the window with a chair.

“Daryl, look out!” The chair doesn’t work. Shane loads his shotgun and fires a round at the glass. It barely makes a dent.

Seeing no progress, Carol reaches in her bag, remembering one important detail from Rick arriving at camp. “Rick, I have something that might help.”

Shane scuffs as the timid Omega fumbles with her purse, “Carol, I don’t think a nail file’s gonna do it.”

“Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket.” Carol ignores the other Alpha as she speaks to the Prime, pulling out the grenade Rick had picked up in the tank in Atlanta. She gives it to him and takes Sophia away toward the back of the lobby.

“The fuck Officer Friendly?”

“Oh my god, that’s a GERNADE!”

“GET DOWN!”

Everyone but Rick takes cover while he removes the pin and puts the grenade on the window sill. Terrified at what he’s just done he leaps back and away as quickly as he can.

“Oh, Sh—”

Only the window nearest to the grenade shatters but it’s big enough for them to escape through. Once outside the group runs to their vehicles, the guys shoot down any Walkers that are in their path; Daryl takes one’s head off with his axe. Rick leads the way, the pups and their mothers right behind him. He climbs into the RV and gets keys to start the engine. Lori points out the window as Andrea and Dale jump down out of the building. “Wait wait wait wait wait. They’re coming.”

Andrea and Dale make a run for the R.V. and Rick checks his watch. They weren’t going to make it. Lori sees the flames building up in the window and sticks her head out the window “Dale, get down! Andrea, down!”

Dale and Andrea take shelter behind the sandbag cordon out by the guard shack. Everyone else ducks down in their vehicle as a huge fireball builds up inside the C.D.C. building until it fills the entire place. The heat blasts out the windows, setting fire to everything around it, exploding tanks, cars, trucks, everything it touches. The explosion expands until the roof disintegrates and the building implodes on itself. Everyone is shocked at the destruction. Behind the sandbags Dale reaches down to Andrea and helps the Beta up.

Glenn opens the R.V. door, ushering them into the vehicle as he sees the Walkers getting closer. “Get in, get in, get in. get in!”

Rick drives the R.V. away, looking shaken. The five cars turn around and drive back up the road they’d come down on, the burning of the C.D.C. sends a column of black smoke high up into the Atlanta sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so first off I want to apologize to everyone reading my story because Season 2 isn't out yet. I've been really busy trying to get my own books published and editing them myself cause I haven't found a editor for them. Plus, my computer went down and I had to wait to get it fix due to low funds, then I found out that all my stuff was gone. So I have had to rewrite the chapters I had and am now getting them checked over with my Beta before I post anything. I will let you guys know when that will be a few days before, while I make final changes. 
> 
> Thank you guys for staying with me, love ya!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Brylin's A/B/O Terminology Guide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11156916) by [Solangelo_Infection332](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solangelo_Infection332/pseuds/Solangelo_Infection332)




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